Hi -
Nice write-up. I learned quite a bit from it. I also see a lot of variation in
Red-breasted Sapsuckers here on the coast, and assumed much of it was related
to age and sex. I saw a presentation at an ornithological conference back in
the late 1970s or early 1980s by Ned Johnson in which he showed photos of a
Red-breasted Sapsucker specimen with the head feathers clipped to about half
their length. It showed a head pattern very similar to Red-naped Sapsucker in
the feather bases, that was obscured by red tips on all the feathers.
In my opinion, a lot of birders are too quick to call birds hybrids because
they do not appreciate the amount of variation present in "pure" populations of
the parents. I see this with gulls. A bit of dark smudging or streaking on the
head of a winter Western Gull does not automatically make it an "Olympic" Gull,
particularly if it has a very dark back. "Olympic" Gulls also ought to show
intermediate or mixed characters of mantle color, iris color, and/or eye-ring
color, and/or bill color.
Also in wigeons. "Pure" Eurasian Wigeon drakes can have some green around and
behind the eye. This is pretty regular in Asian populations, at least. Hybrids
likely will have this green, but also should also have some pinkish color
invading the flanks. We need to be careful with this, though, because Eurasians
do have pinkish flanks in eclipse plumage; and Eurasians (at least the east
Asian populations) have a delayed molt out of eclipse. Birds may have retained
eclipse flank feathers at least into December.
Wayne
From: "Jen Sanford" <jjsanford@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "obol" <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: josephblowers@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, March 9, 2016 8:58:44 AM
Subject: [obol] The continuing Sapsucker Dilemma
Hi all,
At the risk of beating a possibly dead sapsucker horse here, I wanted to share
the blog post I put together this morning about the Wasco County bird in
question:
http://www.iusedtohatebirds.com/2016/03/the-sapsucker-dilemma.html ;
I dug into my photos and pulled out an assortment of Red-breasted Sapsucker
images from the Portland/Multnomah area in an effort to understand what is
normal and what is not. I find so much variation that I am only more confused.
Stephen Shunk's hybrid article is very interesting but did not sway me in
either direction as to the identity of my Wasco bird.
Maybe Sibley said it best with "Plumage variation within each of the three
closely related sapsuckers-and interbreeding where ranges overlap-produces a
small number of individuals not safely identified."
Good birding,
Jen Sanford
Portland
