Birds and Nature

All but one of the sapsuckers I have found overwintering this season in Canon City have been Williamson's except this male Red-naped that I refound where he was previously seen at The Abbey. Some birders might misidentify this male as a Yellow-bellied as the 'frame' around it's throat is relatively heavy for a Red-naped (and some Yellow-bellied have some red feathering on their napes); however, the black frame is broken, at the place where it bends, where some of the red feathers cover it and almost meet the white feathering. Also consistent with it's Red-naped identification is the reduced amount of white on it's back and the clear separation of the white feathering into 2 longitudinal bands (though I find this is not always a definitive field mark). SeEtta

Before I was out of town for a month on my Rio Grande Valley trip there had been up to 23 sapsuckers wintering in the Canon City area. Since I returned home I have only been able to locate 11. I took the top pic of a female Williamson's Sapsucker today at Rouse Park, a city-type park. I took the middle pic of another female Sapsucker earlier this week at a private residence. I also refound a male Williamson's at this private location which was hosting both a male and female of this species in November and December. SeEtta

I started off to just do a count of the female Williamson's Sapsuckers today as there are so many birds it seemed like it would be easier to just count the males and females on different days, but shifts in sapsucker locations changed my plan. The first sapsucker I spotted this morning at Centennial Park was a male, the first time I have seen a male at this location this year. Then I realized there were two sapsuckers in that same pine tree, one a male and the other a female. Sapsuckers do not like to share. The male proceeded to behave aggressively towards the female-he raised his crest and moved towards her, and get this--he gave a churr call then what sounded like he hissed at her. I was only 20-25 feet away so I could hear the interaction fairly well and it sounded like a hiss. (Of course, I can't find anything in the literature about such a sound by this species though I did find that young Red-headed Woodpecker nestlings do hiss.) Anyway, this caused the female to retreat...

In addition to the single male Red-naped Sapsucker I found on the grounds of The Abbey in Canon City on November 1, there are at least 4 female Williamson's and 2 male Williamson's Sapsuckers at local hotspots. Since female Williamson's look alike, I drove from one hotspot to another finding one at each of 4 hotspots including The Abbey. Since I think it is pretty unlikely that one or more females flew immediately to the next hotspot after I drove to the next one, I believe the 4 females I saw were different individuals. I haven't seen either of the two male Williamson's I posted on at Lakeside Cemetery on Nov 6 even though I have looked several times. However, I saw both male Williamson's in Rouse Park, one on the north side and one several hundred yards away. I drove back and forth twice between these locations to confirm that these were 2 different birds. I posted photos of the female at The Abbey below so will post photos of the other sapsuckers in n...