11 Apr 2010
East Canyon Reservoir
Morgan County, Utah

(E-mails from Joel Beyer, 11 Apr 2010)

After looking at a supposed Red-naped Sapsucker (it had a red nape) with Jeff and his group, we searched through every tree and bush within sight of the restrooms. Finding no other sapsucker, we decided to revisit the bird dismissed earlier. The sun was now out (10 am), and we took advantage of it with a long excellent look at the bird. This time around we were able to see that the red on the throat was entirely encircled by black, and the back had extensive barring (rather than two neat rows). The bird did have a dull red patch on the nape, but the books say this does rarely occur. So presumably this was the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Now we'll let the experts thrash it out.

Joel

         Photos by Joel Beyer