Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber) [XC875442]
by Tayler Brooks from Folsom Lake State Park Peninsula, El Dorado County, California, United States (call)
Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber) [XC140674]
by Ian Cruickshank from Toiyabe National Forest (near Markleeville), Alpine, California, United States (begging call)
Subspecies
Forms a superspecies with Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) and Red-naped Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis), and in the past sometimes treated as conspecific. Hybridizes with both, but especially Red-naped Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis), wherever ranges overlap. Subspecies intergrade, completely in extreme southern Oregon.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
ruber (Gmelin, 1788) - Southern Alaska south to western Oregon.
daggetti Grinnell, 1901 - South-western Oregon northern and eastern California and western Nevada.