Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Sphyrapicus varius
Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers, according to the range maps of Birds of North America online, winter in many of the southeastern U.S. states and are not generally seen west of Texas. For the summer breeding season, they mostly leave the U.S. and fly northward to Canada. Some do stay in the U.S., primarily in our northern border states east of Montana. So, what is this one doing in Berkeley, CA's Tilden Park on February 21, 2018? Isolated birds that are where they are not expected are called vagrants, and birders love to find these. No one fully understands how or why vagrants end up in these strange places. Some speculate that storms may have caused a few to get lost, or that there is something wrong with their internal guidance system. The Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker in many respects looks quite similar to the Red-Naped Sapsucker, although the absence of any red nape (left photo) helps to distinguish them, as does a complete black border around the red throat patch (partially shown in the right photo). (Click on images to see enlarged versions.)