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The Assorted Birds page has images of a Red-naped Sapsucker, Black-billed Magpies and a Gray Jay taken in Mammoth Hot Springs, Lower Mammoth, and in the forest over the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone.
Click an image to open a larger version. Use your back button to return to this page.
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Sandhill Cranes Trumpeter Swans Raptors
Great Blue Heron and American Avocet Assorted Birds
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Woodpeckers Jays, Ravens & Magpies
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6048
A Red-naped Sapsucker prepares to announce its presence by pecking the rear of a handicapped sign in Mammoth Hot Springs.
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6052c
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6054c
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The Red-naped Sapsucker paused to pose for and check out the photographer, using its patented cute blink and cocking his head to listen to the clicking of the shutter. This sapsucker was competing with one of his colleagues who was pecking on the metal flagpole in Mammoth Hot Springs. While the sound of the pecking on the flagpole carried far and wide, the sound of this sapsucker pecking on the back of the parking sign was considerably louder. I assumed that they were attracting females.
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6070
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6072
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The sapsucker would lean over, peck the sign, then right itself and pose for the photographer. Normally, it is not possible to approach a woodpecker this closely (especially at eye level) as they are generally seen high up in trees, but this fellow seemed both interested in the sound of the camera and quite certain that he would not find a better transmitter of his mating call, and stayed in place while I approached rather closely (this series of images was taken at 200mm).
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6073 M
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6086 M
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A Red-naped Sapsucker pauses to pose for the photographer while pecking on a handicapped sign in Mammoth Hot Springs. These M-sized images are 1000 x 1600 pixels including title bar.
All of the landscape (horizontal) large version images linked from the thumbnails are 1500 pixels wide. Portrait (vertical) images are 1200 pixels tall (1290 pixels with title bar). Images designated with an “M” in the shot number are 5:4 aspect ratio, 1500 x 1290 with a title bar, or 1500 x 1200 without a title bar. A few portrait images like the ones above are designated “M”, and are 1500 pixels tall (plus title bar).
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6089
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6094
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The Red-naped Sapsucker cocks his head to listen to the shutter while posing for the photographer.
The Red-naped Sapsucker is a sister species with the Red-breasted Sapsucker, and both birds are closely related to the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. The Red-naped Sapsucker was thought to be a subspecies of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker for most of its known existence, but there are significant genetic differences. Since 1998 it has been recognized as a distinct species.
The Red-naped Sapsucker is a medium-sized woodpecker which inhabits the Rocky Mountains and Great Basin. It interbreeds with the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the eastern border of its range and the Red-breasted Sapsucker in the western border of its range, creating hybrids which can be difficult to identify. Sapsuckers are named for their diet. They peck a horizontal line of holes in a tree and come back later to sip the sap which fills the holes, and to eat some of the insects attracted to the sap. A group of sapsuckers are collectively called a slurp, proving that at least some ornithologists have a sense of humor. The tongue of the sapsucker is shorter than that of other woodpeckers, and the tip of the tongue has hair-like projections that pick up sap.
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6107
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6110
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The Red-naped Sapsucker is named for the patch of red at the back of its head, on the nape of the neck. Many woodpeckers have either a red crest or a red throat, or in the case of the Red-breasted Sapsucker an entirely red head and breast, so the distinctive markings of the Red-naped Sapsucker’s head are useful for identification.
Female Red-naped Sapsuckers looks like males, but the chin is white instead of red. The male Red-naped Sapsucker’s red throat completely covers the black border along the malar area (jawline at the base of the bill), which distinguishes them from the rare male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker which shows some red color at the nape of the neck.
Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6118 M
A 1000 x 1600 image of a male Red-naped Sapsucker posing on the post of a handicapped sign in Mammoth Hot Springs, which he was energetically pecking on to attract a mate in competition with another male who was noisily pecking on a nearby metal flagpole.
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Woodpeckers Jays, Ravens & Magpies
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6379 M
A 1000 x 1600 image of the male Red-naped Sapsucker posing on the post of a handicapped sign in Mammoth Hot Springs, taken on the following day. The male had determined that the sign was his best option for attracting a mate. The sound of his pecking probably carried at least a mile through the surrounding forest, and had driven off the other male who was pecking on the metal flagpole the day before. I was staying in Gardiner down the hill from Mammoth Hot Springs, and when I was passing through Mammoth on the way to the Lamar Valley I heard the distinctive clanging and knew just who caused it.
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6388 M
Note the pattern on the back of the male Red-naped Sapsucker and the red marking on the nape of his neck as he reaches out to peck on his favorite handicapped sign in Mammoth Hot Springs.
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6392 M
A 1000 x 1600 image of the male Red-naped Sapsucker posing on the post of a handicapped sign in Mammoth Hot Springs. Note the horizontal line of stripped paint on the dented edge of the sign where the sapsucker has pecked his love call.
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6394
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6396
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In this set of images taken at 280mm, our hero leans back, blinks, and raises his crest for the photographer he has attracted.
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6397
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Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6400
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The Red-naped Sapsucker raises his crest and leans back to pose for the photographer while he was noisily pecking off the paint on the rear of a handicapped sign in Mammoth Hot Springs.
Red-naped Sapsucker Mammoth Hot Springs 6414 M
A 1000 x 1600 image of a Red-naped Sapsucker posing in early spring on the post of a handicapped sign in Mammoth Hot Springs which he has been pecking to attract a mate.
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Woodpeckers Jays, Ravens & Magpies
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Gray Jay Lamar Valley 8877 M
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Gray Jay Lamar Valley 8881 M
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An adult Rocky Mountain Gray Jay, perched in a tree above the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park.
Gray Jays prefer forests with Black Spruce, White Spruce, Engelmann Spruce, Jack Pine and Lodgepole Pine, and avoid otherwise appropriate forests such as the Sierra Nevada where neither these spruces or the two pines grow. They store food by wedging it under the pliable shingle-like scales of these trees to keep it dry. The bark of these trees have antibacterial properties which help to preserve the stored food. These are very particular jays.
Gray Jay Lamar Valley 8889
A Rocky Mountain Gray Jay perched in a tree overlooking the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park.
Gray Jays have an unusual cooperative breeding behavior. Young birds fight amongst themselves near the end of the fledging period until the dominant juveniles (known as “stayers”) force their siblings to leave the area (“leavers”). The “stayers” remain with their parents and the “leavers” join an unrelated pair in a different area who failed to breed. Two thirds of “stayers” are male. “Stayers” may inherit the breeding territory from their parents, and “leavers” may fill a nearby vacancy or form a new breeding pair on previously unoccupied territory. The “stayers” retrieve food caches and bring them to their younger siblings after the fledging period, but are prevented from approaching the nest before fledging.
About half of non-breeding “stayers” survive, but only about 15% of non-breeding “leavers” survive to the winter. An additional 50% of all non-breeders survive the winter to the next breeding season. Territory-holding adult Gray Jays have very low mortality rates (15% of males and 18% of females).
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Gray Jay Lamar Valley 8897
An adult Rocky Mountain Gray Jay, perched in a tree above the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park.
Gray Jays manipulate food in their mouths to process it into rounded masses (boluses) which are coated with their sticky saliva. The bolus is stored under a bark crevice, under lichen, or nestled in conifer needles. Gray Jays are well-known for stealing food from human camps, and have often been called “camp robbers”.
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Gray Jay Lamar Valley 8902
An adult Rocky Mountain Gray Jay, perched in a tree above the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park.
Gray Jays cache thousands of food items every day during the summer for use the following winter. They spread their caches in numerous locations (scatter-hoarding) to reduce the possibility of theft by Steller’s Jays and other Gray Jays.
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Ravens Yellowstone 9398
A flock of Ravens roosting in a dead tree in the early morning in autumn.
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Woodpeckers Jays, Ravens & Magpies
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Magpie at Sunrise Lower Mammoth 7749
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Magpie at Sunrise Lower Mammoth 7752
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A Northern American Magpie (Black-billed Magpie) perches on a rock in Lower Mammoth to watch a bull elk bugling to his harem at sunrise on a chilly autumn morning in late September.
Magpie at Sunrise Lower Mammoth 7760 M
Black-billed Magpies are one of only four North American songbirds whose tail makes up half or more of its body length (the others are the Yellow-billed Magpie and the Scissor-tailed and Fork-tailed Flycatchers). The Black-billed Magpie has an iridescent green, blue and violet cast to the tail and wings in the right light. The head, breast and upper back are black, the belly is cream to white, and they are a bit larger than a jay.
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Magpie at Sunrise Lower Mammoth 7763 M
A Black-billed Magpie struts atop a rock in Lower Mammoth, displaying its iridescent tail.
Black-billed Magpies eat nearly anything, including insects, carrion, seeds, berries, nuts, eggs, small rodents, and they have a habit of snatching ticks off the hides of animals. Like Gray Jays, Magpies scatter-hoard food caches, but they cache the food in holes they peck into the ground.
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Magpie at Sunrise Lower Mammoth 7769
A Black-billed Magpie prepares food for caching by manipulating it into a clump for easy storage.
Adult Black-billed Magpies are monogamous. Pairs stay together year-round, and often mate for life.
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Magpie Mammoth Hot Springs 5830c
A North American Magpie (Black-billed Magpie) patrols the grass at the eastern end of Mammoth Hot Springs in the late afternoon on a chilly early spring day in late April.
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Woodpeckers Jays, Ravens & Magpies
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Magpie Mammoth Hot Springs 5833 M
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Magpie Mammoth Hot Springs 5834 M
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A Black-billed Magpie poses for a set of portraits on a fallen tree at the eastern end of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. Notice the close resemblance to crows, ravens and jays in the bill shape (Magpies are in the same family, the Corvids).
Magpie Mammoth Hot Springs 5835 M
A Black-billed Magpie poses for the photographer on a fallen tree in the late afternoon.
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Magpie Mammoth Hot Springs 5837
The Magpie moves to a somewhat precarious perch atop a broken branch.
Like jays, magpies are predators of other bird nests, taking both eggs and nestlings. Nests of the Black-billed Magpie are very large, and can take up to 40 days to construct. Magpies generally nest individually, but they can sometimes gather in loose nesting colonies.
The nests of the Black-billed Magpie are loose accumulations of branches, twigs, mud, grass, bark strips, needles and other material formed into a dome-shaped structure with several side entrances. The nest itself is a cup-shaped lined with fine rootlets, grass and other soft material. Old nests are repaired and reused, and other species often appropriate magpie nests. Many older nests have new nests built on top, and can sometimes be 4 feet tall and 40” (1m) wide.
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Magpie Mammoth Hot Springs 5840
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Magpie Mammoth Hot Springs 5842
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A Black-billed Magpie poses for portraits atop broken branches near Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone.
Magpie Mammoth Hot Springs 6033
A Black-billed Magpie displays iridescent blue and green wings and tail while posing on a wet roadway in the late afternoon, on a chilly early spring day near Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park.
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Woodpeckers Jays, Ravens & Magpies
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