Animal Life in the Yosemite
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THE BIRDS

RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER. Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis Baird

Field characters.—Similar to Red-breasted Sapsucker but with red color restricted on throat, and replaced on breast by black.

Occurrence.—Winter visitant in small numbers on west slope of Sierra Nevada. Observed in Yosemite Valley near foot of Yosemite Falls, November 19, 1915, and at Cascades, November 24, 1915, one individual in each instance, and two specimens taken 10 miles east of Coulterville, December 12, 1915. Seen foraging on dead pine and incense cedar.

The Red-naped Sapsucker is similar in general appearance and habits to the Red-breasted Sapsucker, and seems, in the central Sierra Nevada, to occupy during the winter season the upper part of the range which the latter species fills in summer. The nearest part of the summer range of the Red-naped Sapsucker is, as far as we know, the Warner Mountains of northeastern California.



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Animal Life in the Yosemite
©1924, University of California Press
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

grinnell/birds67.htm — 19-Jan-2006