[cobirds] Red-naped Sapsucker - Cheesman Park (Denver)

I birded Denver Botanic Gardens and Cheesman Park this morning. The Gardens were quieter than they have been lately -- no House Wren scolding everything and just a couple of Barn Swallow out. Even the House Finch seemed scarcer, down to about 20 from the 30 that fed last week with the chickadee in the fading sunflowers. 

After leaving the the Gardens through the Cheesman gate, I spotted my only Wilson's Warbler of the day and found a Brown Creeper singing, my first of this bird this season. I had never heard one sing before, actually, and it was the unfamiliar sound that drew me to it.

Among some flicker, robin, and chickadee in Cheesman was a sapsucker. I got some brief looks and a few photographs. It seems to me to be a Red-naped, rather than a Red-naped / Yellow-bellied (as the April sapsucker at Cheesman came to be). The barring on the back is in two rows, there is limited red on the throat, and incomplete black border around the throat. It's missing the black bib that adults of both species have. But I have very limited experience with both birds and wouldn't know a potential hybrid or a first year bird at this time of year. 

Photographs of this sapsucker are here. Photographs of the April sapsucker are here. Feedback is always appreciated.

The sapsucker was near the eastern edge of Cheesman, near the Gardens' gate. I didn't notice it go into the Gardens. It moved around a lot -- from tree to tree and from eye level to much higher. It was loosely associating with those birds mentioned above, but by the time that I left I could not find it with them. 

- Jared Del Rosso

Denver, CO

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