Red-breasted Sapsucker

The Red-breasted Sapsucker is a medium-sized woodpecker of the Pacific coast, instantly recognizable by its solid, bright red hood that covers the entire head and breast, with no white cheek stripes like its sapsucker relatives. The rest of the body is mottled black and white with a pale yellowish wash on the belly and a bold white wing patch visible in flight.

Once considered a subspecies of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, it is now recognized as its own species. Two subspecies exist along the coast, with northern birds showing slightly more white mottling than the deeper red, nearly hoodless-looking southern birds.

Like all sapsuckers, this species is best known for the neat horizontal and vertical rows of shallow holes, called sap wells, that it drills into tree bark to feed on the sugary sap and the insects it attracts.

Key Field Marks

• Entire head, throat, and breast are solid bright red, lacking the black-and-white face stripes of other sapsuckers
• Black back mottled with white spots and bars
• Pale yellow wash on the belly
• Bold white wing patch visible at rest and in flight
• Black bib often visible where the red breast meets the white belly

Similar Species

• Red-naped Sapsucker and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker both show distinct black-and-white facial stripes and only a red crown/throat patch, never a fully red hood.
• Williamson's Sapsucker males are largely black with a red throat patch only, not a red head.
• Hybrids between Red-breasted and Red-naped Sapsuckers occur in the Cascades and can show intermediate facial patterning.

Habitat

Red-breasted Sapsuckers favor coniferous and mixed evergreen-deciduous forests, especially along stream corridors, as well as orchards, parks, and suburban woodlots within their coastal range.

Range

This species is a coastal Pacific specialist, breeding from southeastern Alaska south through coastal British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California, generally west of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada crests.

Migration

Northern populations are migratory, moving south into California and northern Mexico for winter, while southern coastal populations are largely resident year-round.

Behavior

Red-breasted Sapsuckers drill and maintain wells in living trees, returning repeatedly to lick sap and catch insects drawn to it with a brush-tipped tongue. They also glean insects from bark and occasionally sally out to catch flying insects.

Voice

The call is a nasal, catlike mewing note, along with an irregular, halting drumming pattern on resonant wood that is slower and more stuttering than typical woodpecker drumming.

Feeding

Sap wells are drilled in neat rows and revisited daily; hummingbirds and other birds often use these wells as a food source too.

Nesting

Pairs excavate a new cavity nest each year in a dead or dying tree, often reusing the same tree over successive seasons. Both parents incubate the 4-7 white eggs and feed the young.