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I found this Red-naped Sapsucker on December 12 and it continues to winter here in Canon City, CO. Though Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers winter here every year, Red-naped are not found every year. They generally winter from the middle of New Mexico and south into Mexico at this latitude.
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Though Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers have more generalized white on their backs, more limited white on Red-naped Sapsuckers occurs in two longitudinal patches as clearly shown in the top pic.This bird has a lot of red on it's nape as shown clearly in the second pic.
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Another difference between Red-naped and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers is the framing around their throats--the red throat feathers of this male Red-naped invade the black malar stripe that makes up the frame while on a Yellow=bellied the frame is intact.
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I took these pics with my Canon dslr camera with a 400 mm lens (effective focal length of 640mm as camera is not full frame) then cropped pics to get these enlargements. Be sure to double-click on the top 3 pics for some awesome extreme close-up views (the bottom pic loses quality but the others stay pretty good). SeEtta
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