Red-breasted Sapsucker

Red-breasted Sapsuckers breed along western North America from southeastern Alaska to southern California. Three vaguely similar sapsuckers breed in the United States and Canada, this species, the Red-naped in the central Rocky Mountains, and the Yellow-bellied in northern and eastern regions. Before 1983, ornithologists considered these woodpeckers but a singe, variably plumaged species. Various studies have concluded that, although limited interbreeding occurs, the populations are, in fact, separate species.

Erika and I found this Red-breasted Sapsucker as we strolled around Olympia’s Capitol Lake on 30 April 2019. The bird made repeated sallies out of a deciduous tree, returning nearby after every flight. The bird appeared to be flycatching. This foraging strategy is reported for the species up to 10% of the time. Like other sapsuckers, however, these woodpeckers are specialized for tending sap wells that they previously drill. There they drink sap and eat trapped insects (Walters et al. 2014).