1st Yellow-bellied Sapsucker of the season in Canon City

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Every winter the Canon City, CO area hosts Yellow-bellied, Williamson's and sometimes Red-naped Sapsuckers that apparently find our mild climate hospitable and conducive for feeding on phloem, insects and sap in the many pine trees in the area. The 2010/2011 winter was a banner year as I found up to 23 sapsuckers just in the Canon City area plus several more in nearby Florence, CO. This female Yellow-bellied had evaded me since last week when I began finding a few fresh sap wells at the private residence where I photographed her today. I caught a brief glimpse of her several days ago at another residence a few hundred feet east of where I found her today but she slipped off before I could tell anymore than that what I saw was a sapsucker by shape.

We got 5-6 inches of snow last night so late this morning she was still feeding away in a pine tree that had a lot of old sapsucker scars.

The top pic shows  the white throat indicative of females ( there was no red on the lower part of the throat as would be found in a female Red-naped).  Though partially obscurred in these pics, there is an unbroken black frame around the throat that is not invaded by throat feathers as occurs in Red-naped.  If you click on the pics you can see a little of the buffy tinge commonly found on Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers.   SeEtta

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