WOODPECKERS: RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER 
395 
or brownish; yellow of underparts deeper, sides brownish; iris brown, bill blackish, 
legs and feet greenish. Adult female: Similar to adult male, but duller, top of head 
sometimes wholly black, sometimes marked with white; 
chin white, throat more or less red, and chest mottled 
gray. Young: Duller, red of head and throat wanting 
or only suggested, red largely replaced by brown or 
slaty, black of breast wanting or obscure. 
Range. —Breeds in Boreal and Transition Zones from 
central British Columbia and southern Alberta south to western Texas, central New 
Mexico, and northeastern California; winters from northern California and New 
Mexico south to Jalisco and Durango, casually to Guatemala. Casual in migration 
east to Kansas. 
State Records. —In the mountains of the northern part of New Mexico the 
Red-naped Sapsucker occurs at the middle altitudes. [On June 22, 1919, very 
young birds were found in a nest at 7,800 feet on Pot Creek about 12 miles south¬ 
east of Taos (Ligon); and nests were found at from 8,000-9,000 feet in northern 
Santa Fe County (Jensen, 1922). It was observed June 16, 1924, in IJraca Canyon 
southeast of Cimarron (Ligon).] Young out of the nest were being fed July 11, 
1904, at 7,400 feet on Pueblo Creek in the Taos Mountains, and the species was 
seen July 13-20 on the Pecos River at 8,000 feet (Bailey), where it had been found 
as a common breeder in July, 1883 (Henshaw). It was not rare among the aspens 
below 9,000 feet in the Zuni Mountains, June 12-26, 1909 (Goldman). [In the 
south-central part of the State, on the east side of the White Mountains, 8 miles 
west of Alto, Lincoln County, at 7,800 feet, a nest with fresh eggs was found June 
4, 1926, a southern record for the State east of the Rio Grande. In the south¬ 
western part of the State it is rather common in the Black Range, where one nest 
was found, June 26, 1920, in an aspen near Diamond Peak, 16 miles southwest o 
Chloride, and two nests, June 2S, in aspens in Black Canyon, 30 miles southwest o 
Chloride; all three nests containing young (Ligon).] 
In the fall, old and young range high in the mountains at least to 10,700 feet, 
at which altitude in the Culebra Mountains, they were noted August 21, 1904 
(Gaut). During migration the species ranges over southern New Mexico and to 
central Mexico. It was one of these migrants taken near the Mimbres Rivei y 
Doctor Henry which served as the type of the species nuchalis. Late migrants 
were seen in the northern part of the State, October 20, 1883, at Willis (Hens i.iw), 
and October 22 and 29, 190S, at Fruitlatid (Birdseye). Farther south they were 
seen October 6-12, 1908, at Gila (Goldman); October 19, 1906, on Willow Creek 
in the Mogollon Mountains (Bailey); and November 1, 1904, at Kingston (Metea e). 
In the Manzano Mountains, they were found fairly common in the foothi ^ c 0 
ber, 1903. . 1f f 
[In winter, they are reported common in wooded sections of the southern m 
the State; “the colder the winter, the lower down they occur (Ligon, 1J1J). 
specimen was taken, December 2, 1917, at Silver City (Kellogg)]; and one taken 
January 9, 1900, at Albuquerque (Birtwell).—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Generally in trunks of living aspens, 5 to 30 feet from the ground. Eggs. 
Usually 4 or 5, white. 
Food.—O f the eastern and western forms of the Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, 
313 stomachs examined contained 49.31 per cent of animal matter and 50.6J vegc 
table. Ants amounted to 34.31 per cent of the whole food, fruit of little econ ™ n *^ 
interest—28.06 per cent of the food, and cambium—inner bark of tices >• 
per cent. “The damage this Sapsucker inflicts in eating the cambium an sap 
Fig. 69. Red-naped 
Sapsucker, skin 
