I have been rewarded with my second visit of a juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker who likes to work a black walnut tree that is in my neighbor's yard just on the other side of my south fence.
I first saw this sapsucker on Jan. 1st while doing the FeederWatch for Cornell. I was able to get some photos through the dining room window which I used to begin the identification process. Using Sibley, I narrowed it down to a juvenile Red-naped Sapsucker, but did not even dare to consider the juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker when I looked at its distribution. Since I have only been birding for less than 2 years, I thought I had been get some confirmation from the experts so I first sent my photos to Dave Hill and Karen von Saltza. From there they went to Hugh Kingery, Tony Leukering, and Bob Andrews who all confirmed that my little visitor was indeed a juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Bob Andrews suggested that I keep an eye out for this bird since they often spend several weeks or sometimes months in the same area. He said I might be able to watch the plumage change. Great suggestion because I could see some dramatic differences today. Since the bird was backlit by the sun when I took today's photos, I could see red on the forehead and in the chin area. Cornell has put this sighting into their Rare Bird site, if you would like to take a look: http://watch.birds.cornell.edu/PFW/ExploreData?cmd=rareBirds&speciesGroup=ID322557&period=PFW_2011 I have posted today's pictures and the first sighting pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/broadwing/5352793956/in/photostream/ No fossil fuels were used in the sighting of this life bird for me! :) Enjoy, Cynthia Madsen Centennial, Co. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
