Yesterday I found the adult male Williamson's Sapsucker seen in the top two pics in the few deciduous trees (of all things, Siberian elms) in a normally dry wash that are supported by the small amount of water that runs off a gravel road and through the wash. When I saw him yesterday, I thought he was just a latish bird that had made a down-slope move from their breeding habitat in conifers at a higher elevation to the pinyon-juniper foothills near Canon City. I didn't have much time to observe him yesterday so I returned today I found not only the male but a female Williamson's Sapsucker in the same elm tree but that the several small elms here had hundreds of sap wells drilled in many of the limbs--it would seem more likely that one or both of these birds had been here for some time.
Canon City has hosted one or more Williamson's Sapsucker, usually females, every winter for the several years but in very different habitat. In Canon City they have wintered in park-like locations with many and diverse trees where they have spent a lot of their time drilling sap wells in pine trees then retreating (either in afternoons or late mornings) to tall deciduous trees for loafing and some more drilling.
The female is so different in appearance from the male in this species that they were originally thought to be of different species. The females brownish head is offset by the more striking black and whitish barring. Like the male the center of her breast and her belly are yellow but much paler than on the male. One more pic and more discussion in next post. SeEtta
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