So now using a very long telephoto lens plus some cropping you get a very close-up view of the head and neck of this female sapsucker. Some likely saw in the previous photos a hint of some red at the bottom of the throat and now this clearly shows a limited amount of red--is this within an acceptable range of "throat and chin white with the occasional few red feathers"? (from Migration Research Foundation-McGill Bird Observatory) Below is the chart from the Migration Research Foundation for scoring sapsuckers:
I believe this is more than 'traces of red' but the red doesn't appear to 'form a complete band' at the bottom of the throat (the caveat is that though this is a very close-up view there is the possibility that if one had this bird in hand and pulled it's head back to view the throat fully it might be that the red does form a complete but thin band-but we have to deal with what we got). So I would rank this bird as smack in the middle of this scoring of throat traits.
More close up photos showing other field marks tomorrow.
Close-up shot of female sapsucker
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