Red-breasted Sapsucker

The Red-breasted Sapsucker replaces the Red-naped and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers along the Pacific coast and adjacent mountains, and is easily told apart by its nearly solid red head and upper breast. Where the other Sphyrapicus sapsuckers show crisp black-and-white facial stripes, this species has largely lost that pattern under an overall red wash.

It otherwise shares the family's black, white-barred back and habit of drilling sap wells in bark, and occupies conifer and mixed forest from lowland coastal areas up into mountain elevations.

• Head and breast: nearly solid red in adults, obscuring the black-and-white facial stripes seen in relatives
• Back: black with white barring and a white wing patch, typical of the sapsucker group
• Underparts: pale yellowish below the red breast
• Vs. Red-naped Sapsucker: Red-breasted shows far less black-and-white facial contrast, with red extending broadly over the head and chest rather than being confined to forehead, throat, and nape

Both sexes show extensive red on the head and breast, with less sexual dimorphism than other sapsuckers, though females can show slightly less extensive red. Juveniles are mottled brown, acquiring the red wash gradually through their first year. It hybridizes with Red-naped Sapsucker in some contact zones.

Found along the Pacific coast and adjacent mountain ranges from southeastern Alaska south through California, in coniferous and mixed forest. Northern populations are migratory, moving south for winter, while some southern populations are more sedentary.

Drills rows of sap wells in conifer and deciduous bark, feeding on sap, insects drawn to it, and some fruit. Nests are excavated in dead or dying trees, often conifers. Its call is a nasal, mewing note similar to other sapsuckers, and it drums in the same irregular, stuttering pattern typical of the genus.