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From: sandee@vsserv.scri.fsu.edu (Daan Sandee)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Red-Breasted Sapsucker questions
Message-ID: <1724@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>
Date: 21 Dec 90 01:11:12 GMT
References: <3064@wyse.wyse.com>
Sender: news@sun13.scri.fsu.edu
Organization: Florida State University
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In article <3064@wyse.wyse.com> benefiel@wyse.wyse.com (Daniel Benefiel xtmp x2531 dept234) writes:
=On Sunday 16th I was at Wyse near 237 & N. 1st in San Jose w/ a friend
=and got several good looks at my first R-B Sapsucker (actually two).  The
=1.  White on wing--Both guides show a wing "patch".  What I saw was
=    a long stripe along the edge (primaries?).
=2.  Back--Down the length of the back were three wide strips of
=    black w/ speckled white/black in between.  The guides show
=    a mostly solid black back.
=3.  Belly--No hint of yellow that I could see.  All the good looks
=    were when it was hugging a tree, but the guides lead you to
=    believe that you should definitely see yellow, at least on the
=    sides.
=4.  Mustache--This guy's was long.  Peterson's shows 3 examples:
=    juvenile (long), dagetti (medium), and ruber (short).  My
=    bird's was at least as long as the juvenile's.  (What are dagetti
=    and ruber, anyway?)
=5.  Breast--I don't think the red went very far onto the breast.
=So why is my bird so different?  Season?  Age?  Locality?

Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber) is divided into two subspecies,
a northern one, S.r.ruber, and a southern one, S.r.daggetti [sic ; Peterson
has a spelling error].
S.r.daggetti has more white on the back, much like Red-naped Sapsucker, and
little or no yellow on the belly.
All sapsuckers have white wing patches but they often just show a white line
on the closed wing.
Cf. - NGS Field Guide, p.269
    - Audubon Master Guide (Vol 2) has a photograph on p.231 which shows a
       Red-br.Saps. with very little white on the wing and no yellow on the
        belly.
    - Kenn Kaufman's Field Guide to Advanced Birding.
Peterson's Field Guide may be the granddaddy of them all but is no longer the
last word in bird identification.
On a recent trip to California I saw a sapsucker with a head which was mostly
red but with clear black markings in a pattern suggesting that of Red-naped or
Yellow-bellied. Must have been a hybrid. According to Kaufman, the three
species hybridize frequently and the offspring may look like anything.

Daan Sandee                                           sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052  (904) 644-7045