The Red-naped Sapsucker 
toward reduction of red in nuchal band (this red completely wanting in typical varius). 
Young (sexes alike ?): General pattern of adults on upperparts, but spotting pale 
sulphur-yellow; no red on nape, black instead; the crown blackish, more or less overlaid 
or suffused (or not) with dull red; underparts chiefly dingy sulphury brown, barred with 
blackish, most conspicuously on breast, colors blending on sides of throat, chin, and 
upper throat, dingy whitish, or progressively suffused with dingy red; middle of belly 
immaculate sulphur-yellow. Length 184.2-215.9 (7.25-8.50); wing 128 (5.04); tail 
75 (2.95); bill 23 (.91); tarsus 20 (.79). 
Recognition Marks. —Towhee size; highly variegated black, white, and red 
(and sometimes tinged with yellow below); red throat-patch defined by black (or 
white on chin in female) distinctive. 
Nesting. — Nest: A gourd-shaped excavation in decaying wood of live aspen 
tree, 5-30 feet up; entrance l}4 inches wide; hole 8-10 inches deep; no lining. Eggs: 
3 to 6; white, moderately glossed, ovate to elliptical ovate. Av. size 22.9 x 17 (.90 
x .67). Season: June 1—15; one brood. 
Range of Sphyrapicus varius. —Northern North America, breeding from near 
limit of trees south irregularly in mountainous and heavily timbered districts to North 
Carolina, Missouri, New Mexico, and California. South in winter to Central America. 
Range of 5 . v. nuchalis. —Western North America. Breeding in Transition and 
Boreal zones from central British Columbia south to northeastern California, New 
Mexico and western Texas; wintering from southern California and southwestern 
Arizona to west central Mexico. 
Distribution in California. —Common summer resident in the Warner Mount¬ 
ains. Common in winter in the valley of the Colorado River; also sparingly in the San 
Diegan district west at least to Santa Barbara, and casually elsewhere west of the 
Sierras. 
Authorities. — Baird ( Sphyrapicus varius), Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. ix., 1858, 
p. 103 (Ft. Yuma); Shufeldt, Auk, vol. v., 1888, p. 212, figs, (pterylosis); Bendire , 
Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, vol. ii., 1895, p. 88; Grinnell, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zook, vol. 
xii., 1914, p. 132 (Colo. Valley, winter); ibid., Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 11, 1915, 
p. 80 (Warner Mts., breeding). 
THIS western variety of the well-known Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 
( S. varius) differs only slightly in appearance and habits from the eastern 
bird, and not at all in disposition. Of varius I have already saidp 
“Before the maple sap has ceased running, our woods are invaded 
from the south by a small army of hungry Sapsuckers. The birds are 
rather unsuspicious, quiet, and sluggish in their movements. Their com¬ 
mon note is a drawling and petulant kee-a, like that of a distant Hawk; 
but they use it rather to vent their feelings than to call their fellows, for 
although there may be twenty in a given grove, they are only chance asso¬ 
ciates and have no dealings one with another. Starting near the bottom 
of a tree, one goes hitching his way up the trunk, turns a lazy back-somer- 
sault to re-inspect some neglected crevice, or leaps out into the air to 
capture a passing insect. The bulk of this bird’s food, however, at least 
1 Birds of Ohio, p. 350. 
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