Williamson's sapsucker Sphyrapicus thyroideus

Identification Tips:

• Length: 8.25 inches
• Medium-sized woodpecker
• White rump
• Dark tail with black and white barring on centralmost and outermost retricies

Male:

• Black head, breast, and back
• White postocular stripe extends to nape
• Pale moustachial stripe is fairly thin
• Red throat in adult male, white throat in immature male
• Black wings, with white barring on flight feathers barred and bold white patch on wing coverts
• Bright yellow belly, with some black and white barring on flanks

Female:

• Entirely pale brown head
• Pale back barred with black
• Dark brown wings spotted and barred with white
• Heavily barred breast and sides
• Pale yellow belly

Similar species:

Male distinctive, and while his white patch on the secondary coverts identifies him as a sapsucker, he is patterned like no other sapsucker (or woodpecker). The female is somewhat more subtle, and is the only sapsucker to lack a white wing patch, but no other woodpecker shares her broadly pale back barred with brown and brown wings spotted with white.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.