Red-breasted sapsucker Sphyrapicus ruber

Identification Tips:

• Medium-sized woodpecker
• Red head and upper chest
• Whitish feathering at lores at base of bill
• Black back with faint bars
• Black wings, with white barring on flight feathers and bold white patch on wing coverts
• Yellow belly fades to whitish lower belly and vent, and is streaked sparsely about the flanks
• White rump
• Dark tail with black and white barring on centralmost and outermost retricies

Northern subspecies (S. r. ruber):

• Deeper red head and breast
• Black back with yellowish bars
• White area limited to area above bill

Southern subspecies (S.r.daggetti):

• Paler red head and breast
• Black back with whitish bars
• White areas above bill extends diagonally down slightly across cheek

Juvenile:

• Wings and back patterned more or less like adult
• Head brownish and streaked, with weak postocular stripe and moustachial stripe
• Pale chest barred lightly with brown
• Yellowish belly sparsely barred and streaked with brown
• Juvenile plumage retained until mid-September

Similar species:

White patch on wing coverts sets sapsuckers apart from all other woodpeckers. Only the Red-headed Woodpecker is vaguely similar in pattern, but does not overlap in range and could be easily distinguished by its white secondaries (rather than wing coverts). Beware of hybridization with Red-naped Sapsucker as well, and use caution when identifying atypical birds. The juvenal plumage is similar to Red-naped and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, but is very briefly held and is paler about the chest.