Hybrid Red-breasted X Red-naped Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber X Sphyrapicus nuchalis), Bog Spring Trail - Madera Canyon, Pima County

This hybrid Red-breasted X Red-naped Sapsucker was photographed by Dick Dionne on 17 January 2009 along the Bog Spring Trail in Madera Canyon. 

The amount of red on the head of this sapsucker is too extensive to be a Red-naped Sapsucker.  While the amount of red is on the low end for Red-breasted Sapsucker, it is not necessarily out of range for a female of the southern form of the Red-breasted Sapsucker (S. r. daggetti).  What marks this bird most likely as a hybrid is the row of black feathers across the upper breast which a pure Red-breasted Sapsucker of any race would lack. 

See more details on hybrid sapsuckers here. 

Hybrids like this a fairly regular in Arizona and may be more common than pure Red-breasted Sapsuckers, but identification issues cloud our understanding of the distribution of hybrids vs. pure birds. 

17 January 2009, photo by Dick Dionne

All photos are copyrighted© by photographer