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Red-naped Sapsucker | Sphyrapicus nuchalis

Roodneksapspecht | Chupasavia nuquirrojo

The Red-naped Sapsucker replaces the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the interior mountains of the west, sharing a similar pattern but with a red rather than white nape patch and more red bleeding into the black head stripes.

Red-naped Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis) — Photo: lwolfartist — CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Voice

The call is a nasal, mewing note similar to that of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker; drumming follows the same stuttering rhythm, with a short introduction followed by irregular strikes.

No freely licensed recording has been found for this species yet; what to listen for is described below.

Identification

Black-and-white barred back, a red forecrown and a red nape patch, a broad white wing stripe and a pale yellow belly. The male has an entirely red throat, the female a white throat edged with red.

Confusion species

Confusion arises mainly with the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (white rather than red nape) and the Red-breasted Sapsucker (entirely red head and breast); intergrades occur where the two ranges meet.

Habitat

Aspen woodland and mixed conifer forest in the mountains and Great Basin of the interior west.

Where the bird is most often found, arranged by the USNVC — the vegetation classification of the United States and Canada — and CMECS for sea and coast.

Range and movements

Breeds in the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin, from southern Canada to the south-western United States; winters in the south-western US and Mexico.

Resident
Breeding (summer)
Winter
Passage
dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

The map is a density field, not a drawn range boundary: it is built from the records themselves and therefore does not follow state or national borders. Both the seasonal colour and the depth of colour come, cell by cell, from the records of GBIF (2006–2026), counted per 0,7° cell and divided by all bird records in that same cell, so that the density of birdwatchers does not count. Every cell is counted separately for June–July, December–January and the migration months, and takes the colour of the season that wins there; a cell is only called summer or winter where the other season is nearly empty. Country outlines: Natural Earth (public domain). This species occupies a small area; the map is zoomed in on it.

Where and when to look

Look for rows of sap wells in high-elevation aspen stands; the red nape immediately separates it from the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker where the two ranges could otherwise touch.

Conservation

Not threatened; dependent on aspen stands, which are locally under pressure from changing forest management and climate.

Scientific name

Sphyrapicus nuchalis | Baird, 1858

Baird described the species in 1858 directly within the genus Sphyrapicus, so author and year stand without parentheses. Nuchalis is Latin for 'of the nape', after the red nape patch.