Jen, that was a great read, thank you. I've been very interested in this thread,
because of a bird I saw in Troy, Wallowa County. I was pretty confident that it
was a hybrid. Now, not quite as confident. Although, I think the location helps
the case of a hybrid. According to the ebird map, rbsa sightings seem pretty
rare in our area. I'll contribute this photo. It was taken in December, 2015. I
have two more shots from different angles. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
Cheers,
Scott O'Donnell
On March 9, 2016 at 8:58 AM Jen Sanford <jjsanford@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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
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