Date: 9/25/26 11:37 am From: maliadances via groups.io <maliadances...> Subject: Re: [pen-bird] Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at Wunderlich Park
Hi Laurie,It would be helpful if you could put a gps location out there so folks could go to the spot where you had your observation. Perhaps someone could then re-find and photograph the bird. From looking at eBird data for all time in the month of September, there are only a few records along the Central Valley and eastward to the Sierra's/Cascades for this species. There are zero records to the west of those areas in North America for the month of September for all time for California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. So for what it's worth, that is how rare a record of Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is for this location and time of year.
Hopefully you or someone else can re-find and document this bird. I believe anything can happen in the bird world. However as Carl Sagan once said, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence".
Malia DeFeliceeBIrd-San Mateo County
On Friday, September 25, 2026 at 09:51:47 AM PDT, lebeck777 via groups.io <lebeck777...> wrote:
Yes, I understand this is not an expected sighting! But I have seen many sapsuckers before and I am certain of that much.... but I didn't get enough of a look at the back side to say there was no red on the nape. I didn't see any evidence of such, though. The only camera I had with me was an old iPhone. Although I was actively birding, my primary objective was just to take a hike, and it was in the heat of the afternoon, not prime birding time. I saw the bird when I was descending on the Bear Gulch trail, getting almost within sighting distance of the stables, above the junction with the Loop trail. I had a clear and sustained profile view of this bird, and it was definitely a sapsucker. Unmistakeable white stripe along the wing edge, bright red on the throat and top of the head. I do feel the belly was pale yellow. The bird was too far away for my iPhone to even have a shot at a photo. I tried to get looks from a different angle, but the bird flew to another tree and was partially hidden. Eventually it flew upslope a bit farther away. This is a huge forested area, so I don't expect that it will be easy to find this bird again, but I hope someone else does. I might keep looking (I docent at the carriage room museum so I visit Wunderlich regularly). Laurie
