Red-naped Sapsucker

Overview
Red-naped Sapsucker: Medium-sized woodpecker with white-checkered black upperparts, pale yellow underparts with spotted sides. Head has red crown, nape patch and white moustache stripe behind eye. Throat and breast band are black. Wings are black with thick white stripes. Black bill, legs and feet.

Range and Habitat
Red-naped Sapsucker: Breeds in the Rocky Mountains from British Columbia and Alberta south to east-central California, central Arizona, and southern New Mexico. Spends winters north to southern California, central Arizona, and central New Mexico. Found in edges of coniferous forests, woodlands, and groves of aspen and alder.

The Red-naped Sapsucker has a large range, estimated globally at 2,100,000 square kilometers. Native to North America and Guatemala, this bird prefers boreal, temperate, subtropical, or tropical forest and subtropical or tropical shrubland ecosystems. The global population of this bird is estimated at 2,200,000 individuals and does not show signs of decline that would necessitate inclusion on the IUCN Red List. For this reason, the current evaluation status of the Red-naped Sapsucker is Least Concern.

INTERESTING FACTS
The Red-naped Sapsucker is closely related to the Yellow-bellied and Red-breasted sapsuckers. All three were formerly considered races of the yellow-bellied. It interbreeds with the Yellow-bellied at the eastern edge of its breeding range and with the Red-breasted to the West. The resulting hybrids can be difficult to identify. Sapsuckers do not suck sap, but are specialized for sipping it. Their tongues are shorter than those of other woodpeckers, and do not extend as far out. The tip of the tongue has small hair-like projections on it that help pick up the sap. A group of sapsuckers are collectively known as a "slurp" of sapsuckers.