Williamson's sapsucker (Sphyrapicus thyroideus) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 10

Existing Protection or Other Status Designations

As a migratory bird Williamson's Sapsucker is protected under the Migratory Bird Convention Act. It is also protected under the British Columbia Wildlife Act. However, there are no known direct threats to the species since it is not hunted, or in any other way directly used by people. Neither of these acts protects Williamson's Sapsucker habitat, and habitat loss is the main population threat.

The habitat of Williamson's Sapsucker in British Columbia does not receive any sort of consideration under the current (Version 2004) Identified Wildlife Management Strategy (IWMS) of the Forest and Range Practices Act of British Columbia (British Columbia Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection 2004). A Williamson's Sapsucker species account and habitat measures were prepared for Volume 1 (B.C. Ministry of Forests and B.C. Environment 1999), and again for inclusion in the next volume (which is now called a version because instead of adding to the protections afforded in Volume 1 as originally anticipated, Version 2004 now replaces Volume 1 entirely). However, in neither case was Williamson's Sapsucker included in the final edition.

The current stated objectives of the IWMS (Version 2004) are only to address COSEWIC-listed species as Identified Wildlife to receive any specific habitat protection under the Forest and Range Practices Act. The first volume addressed a wide range of species that required some form of habitat management under timber harvesting and silvicultural schemes, but has been superseded by the second version. Since Williamson's Sapsucker has not been previously assessed by COSEWIC, no protection has been afforded it under the IWMS despite its current assessment within the province of British Columbia by the B.C. Conservation Data Centre (Table 7).

Table 7. Global, national and local status of Williamson's Sapsucker in Canada and the United States based on NatureServe (2004) and B.C. Species and Ecosystem Explorer (2004)
Scale Taxonomic Unit Status1 Other Status
Global Sphyrapicus thyroideus G5  
Canada Sphyrapicus thyroideus N3B Not yet assessed by COSEWIC
United States Sphyrapicus thyroideus N5B, N3N  
British Columbia S. t. thyroideus S3B Blue-listed
Washington S. t. thyroideus S4B  
California S. t. thyroideus S3  
Oregon S. thyroideus both ssp. S4B,S3N  
Nevada S. thyroideus both ssp. S5  
British Columbia S. t. nataliae S1, S2B Red-listed
Arizona S. t. nataliae S4  
Colorado S. t. nataliae S4B  
Idaho S. t. nataliae S5B  
Montana S. t. nataliae S4B  
New Mexico S. t. nataliae S5B,S5N  
Texas S. t. nataliae S2N  
Utah S. t. nataliae S2B  
Wyoming S. t. nataliae S3B  

1 1 = Critically imperiled; 2 = Imperiled; 3 = Vulnerable; 4 = Apparently Secure; 5 = Secure.
B suffix indicates breeding season only; N indicates non-breeding season only; no suffix indicates both breeding and non-breeding seasons.

Of the currently known Williamson's Sapsucker nest sites, only two are in provincial protected areas, and neither of these are currently occupied. Some nest sites may receive some protection from timber harvesting if draft Old-Growth Management Areas are established under the Forest and Range Practices Act of B.C. However, these have yet to be implemented, and may only protect five of the approximate 170 total nest sites known. The single currently known nest site of the nataliae subspecies is in a municipally-managed park, which does afford some level of habitat protection, but not to the extent of the legislated habitat protection available in Class A provincial parks.

While Williamson's Sapsucker is considered globally secure (G5; Table 7), none of the states or provinces in which thyroideus occurs in abundance (British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California) considers it secure, but list it as either Apparently Secure (S4) or Vulnerable (S3). British Columbia lists the status of nataliae as S1, S2, i.e., Critically Imperiled or Imperiled. The states where only nataliae breeds have variously assessed the status as S2, S3, S4 or S5, although the states where it is most common (Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico) have listed is as Secure or Apparently Secure.

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