Date: 11/4/25 7:47 am From: Rudyard Wallen via groups.io <arelist12...> Subject: [EBB-Sightings] Red-naped Sapsucker at Niles Community Park
Hi Folks,
At first blush this bird seems to be a female. The red cap is more extensive and reaches farther back, the black eye stripe is narrower, the black submustachial is stronger and reaches farther back. The red in the throat is a slightly smaller patch than you generally see in males. And lastly in one of the original photos taken by the finder, Madhavi B., you can see a small white crescent between the bill and the throat. https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/644286408
The bend where the black malar connects to the back bib appears weak due to veiling. Fresh basic plumage with pale fringes that will eventually wear off. Much like a fresh meadowlark with a tan breast and a vague black V - once the tips wear off it then resembles the bird we typically see. This veiling tripped me up and I wondered if this was a hatch year female.
You can see some similarities on this adult female, and it took 24 days of attempts before getting this shot https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/208826231 of a bird that otherwise appeared to have a red throat
When ageing Spring birds the main focus is on the white greater coverts (though in any situation an open wing shot is golden). Fall birds are more difficult, and often require an open wing photo. Monitoring the images of this bird led to this image by Peter S. https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/644503216
It's also possible this bird has a small bit of Red-breasted influence. Note the red within the black collar here https://ebird.org/checklist/S281939520
If you've uploaded images of this bird and tagged it as male, please change it to female, and additionally tag it as adult: from your checklist click on> manage media> click on image> fill in grid under Age/Sex
Note that comments are a different, and as far as I know, unsearchable field. This helps researchers immensely, as a filtered search in Macaulay library for an adult female RNSA eliminates images that aren't tagged- so it requires a lot more digging
Please email me off list if you have questions on this
