red-breasted sapsucker

This brightly colored woodpecker is endemic to the Pacific Northwest They are primarily a migrant and winter visitor to our area. They are famous for drilling into live trees and lapping up the leaking sap with their brush-tipped tongue. This video shows it creating a fresh hole. This individual...

This brightly colored woodpecker is endemic to the Pacific Northwest They are primarily a migrant and winter visitor to our area. They are famous for drilling into live trees and lapping up the leaking sap with their brush-tipped tongue. This is the subspecies S. r. daggetti which is the...

I'm sure it's been years since I posted a "new" shot of this species. Not so ordinary in the yard, but I observed the time and tree I saw it yesterday, went to the spot same time today and she came right in. Didn't peck at the trees, just sits a few minutes and moves on! Lucky me...

I had a great time following this sapsucker all over a tree.

Another not-so-good photo since the bird was sticking to the shady parts of the tree. We usually only see one or two of these here but so far I've found three.

Sometimes the systematics for naming birds does not make sense. Why this is called Red-Breasted, instead of Red-Headed puzzles me.

Dipping its beak into first one, then another, then the first, predrilled sap wells, unconcerned with the humans no more than two meters away. For a closer look: http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/8098457255 (right-click and choose 2048).

My last day in California that trip, I got a few unexpected hours for one last round of the meadow. This was due to a cancelled flight and my being rescheduled on a route that started out later. I think I added four species that day to my list for the week. This was one of them. Not a first, but...

In nice plumage, but starting to show some wear.

I've been watching the pair excavate a nest cavity. While I digiscoped successive frames, she came out with a bill full of wood chips and then tossed them into the air, catching the light.

This red-breasted sapsucker seems to have taken the opportunity of a twig at its back to relax its grip on the branch above.

Feathers askew, this guy had sunbathed for about 10 minutes after taking a bath, then started preening like mad. I loved the way he looked directly at the camera with such attitude. "Hey, d'ya mind?" LOL!

Male Red-breasted Sapsucker, southern variety. This guy was sunbathing in a Jeffrey pine after bathing in a stream in the greenbelt below.

This is a juvenile bird. Upon moulting into it's adult plumage, it will have a bright red head, breast and belly region. Very happy to get this bird as it will allow for comparative data in the "Opus". The conditions were not optimal: the forest, where this was taken, was very dense...

An inconspicuous bird, it is easily missed as it does not advertise it's presence. Look to the trees. Even, parralel rows of drillings are the evidence of it's presnece. If some of the wells are oozing sap then there is a chance it will be along...they are worth the wait.

Adult bird... Over-cast and cold day. Some of my favorite light: even and diffuse. Notice no contra-shading on the bird...evenly iluminated.

This image is posted for the fact that the juvenile bird (left bird) shows the differentialtion in plumage while in transition. The birds were quite distant, and even with a 500mm they are not in good resolution. Like the tree though. Note: the shutter speed is far too slow; 1/160. when using...

This painting of a sapsucker was inspired from a bird I saw here locally in Oregon. The funnest part of the painting was the detail in the mosses and lichens on the foreground tree.

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Red-breasted Sapsucker