{"id":32202,"date":"2017-09-18T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T14:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/?p=32202"},"modified":"2019-08-21T11:18:33","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T15:18:33","slug":"the-people-behind-the-birds-named-for-people-williamsons-sapsucker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/the-people-behind-the-birds-named-for-people-williamsons-sapsucker\/","title":{"rendered":"The People Behind the Birds Named for People: Robert Stockton Williamson"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n              <figure class=\"size-large alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/williamsons-composite-1280x960.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/williamsons-composite-720x540.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/williamsons-composite-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/williamsons-composite-1280x960.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/williamsons-composite-480x360.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/williamsons-composite.jpg 1392w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" alt=\"Williamson's Sapsucker illustrations by Ian Lewington, courtesy Princeton University Press\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><figcaption><em>Williamson&#8217;s Sapsuckers by Ian Lewington, from forthcoming <\/em>Princeton Guide to the Birds of North America.<\/figcaption>\n              <\/figure>\n            <\/div>\n<p><small><em>From the Autumn 2017 issue of <\/em>Living Bird<em> magazine. <a href=\"https:\/\/join.birds.cornell.edu\/ea-action\/action?ea.client.id=1806&amp;ea.campaign.id=24577&amp;ea.tracking.id=LBO\">Subscribe now<\/a>.<\/em><\/small><br \/>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group sidebar-alignright sidebar-space order-bottom\"><div class=\"article-list list-style alignright\"><h2 class=\"article-list-header\">More From Living Bird<\/h2><ul><li class=\"article-item\"><div class=\"article-item-container\"><div class=\"article-item-media  content-living-bird-toc\"><figure class=\"article-item-media-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/FI-TOC-LB4-2017.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/FI-TOC-LB4-2017-720x405.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/FI-TOC-LB4-2017-240x135.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/FI-TOC-LB4-2017-480x270.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/FI-TOC-LB4-2017.jpg 745w\" sizes=\"\" alt=\"Great Philippine Eagle by Kike Arnal, Living Bird TOC Autumn 2017\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/figure><\/div><div class=\"article-item-body\"><span class=\"article-item-header\">Living Bird Autumn 2017\u2014Table Of Contents<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/li><li class=\"article-item\"><div class=\"article-item-container\"><div class=\"article-item-media  content-living-bird-toc\"><figure class=\"article-item-media-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-latest.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-latest.png 720w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-latest-240x180.png 240w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-latest-480x360.png 480w\" sizes=\"\" alt=\"Living Bird-latest issue\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/figure><\/div><div class=\"article-item-body\"><span class=\"article-item-header\">Living Bird Magazine\u2014Latest Issue<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/li><li class=\"article-item\"><div class=\"article-item-container\"><div class=\"article-item-media  content-article\"><figure class=\"article-item-media-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-acrhive.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-acrhive.png 720w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-acrhive-240x180.png 240w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-acrhive-480x360.png 480w\" sizes=\"\" alt=\"Living Bird archives\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/figure><\/div><div class=\"article-item-body\"><span class=\"article-item-header\">Living Bird Magazine Archives<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n<p>Most male and female woodpeckers wear similar, if not matching, plumage, but Williamson\u2019s Sapsuckers did not get the memo. The female is subtly checked with brown and black, while the male is a stunning black with white stripes on the face and a deep red throat. Both sexes have vivid, highlighter-yellow bellies, but this is the only marking they have in common. The differences are so stark that for years, the nineteenth century\u2019s best ornithologists were fooled into thinking the sexes were different species. Yet the bird\u2019s namesake, Robert Stockton Williamson, probably never lost a wink of sleep over the matter.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/williamson-photo-720x1050.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/williamson-photo-720x1050.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/williamson-photo-768x1120.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/williamson-photo-480x700.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/williamson-photo.jpg 948w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" alt=\"Robert Stockton Williamson via Library of Congress\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><figcaption>Col. Robert Stockton Williamson was an engineer and a Civil War veteran who had little interest in birds\u2014but had one named for him all the same. <em>Image via Library of Congress.<\/em><\/figcaption>\n              <\/figure><\/div>\n<p>Williamson was an ambitious, no-nonsense engineer rather than a naturalist. After graduating from West Point fifth in his class, Williamson joined the Army as a topographical engineer and spearheaded expeditions into the Pacific wilderness to plan America\u2019s first transcontinental railroad.<\/p>\n<p>Williamson\u2019s party was surveying in 1855, near Klamath Lake, Oregon, when the expedition\u2019s naturalist, John Newberry, spied a striking black, white, and yellow woodpecker that was like nothing he\u2019d seen before. As was customary for the time, he shot the specimen, described it as a new species, and named it for his boss: <em>Picus williamsonii<\/em>, Williamson\u2019s Sapsucker.<\/p>\n<p>In 1870, Spencer Fullerton Baird (of Baird\u2019s Sparrow and Baird\u2019s Sandpiper) called Newberry\u2019s specimen \u201cso entirely different from any other American bird as to require no special comparison.\u201d It turns out special comparison is exactly what this bird required: the species had already been described just four years earlier\u2014from that uniquely feathered female. For nearly 20 years, the two sexes remained \u201cdifferent\u201d species, at least officially. Williamson might have been entirely unaware of the entire taxonomical development. After returning from the Oregon survey, he fought in the Civil War, serving with Colonel Burnside (whose name also became famous\u2013\u2013not for a bird species, but for a beard style). Postbellum, he wrote a book on using barometers to map elevations, and returned to the Pacific Coast to build lighthouses, namely, Oregon\u2019s oldest standing lighthouse on Cape Blanco. He also blew up a navigational hazard in San Francisco Bay.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group sidebar-alignright sidebar-space order-bottom\"><!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code -->\r\n<span class=\"hs-cta-wrapper\" id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da\">\r\n    <span class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da\" id=\"hs-cta-096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da\">\r\n        <!--[if lte IE 8]><div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div><![endif]-->\r\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/95627\/096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da\" ><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hs-cta-img\" id=\"hs-cta-img-096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da\" style=\"border-width:0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/95627\/096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da.png\"  alt=\"subscribe to Living Bird magazine\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\r\n    <\/span>\r\n    <script charset=\"utf-8\" src=\"https:\/\/js.hscta.net\/cta\/current.js\"><\/script>\r\n    <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n        hbspt.cta.load(95627, '096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da', {});\r\n    <\/script>\r\n<\/span>\r\n<!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code -->\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>It was around the time Williamson\u2019s book on barometers came out that taxonomists were realizing their mistake with the sapsucker. In 1873 a naturalist in Colorado discovered a male and female nesting together and finally put the issue to rest. The species was renamed <em>Sphyrapicus thyroideus<\/em>, in deference to the original description of the female, but kept Williamson as the bird\u2019s common name.<\/p>\n<p>Williamson succumbed to tuberculosis in 1882 and was buried in San Francisco. After his many years improving navigation in the West, his name is perhaps best known for this baffling bird of mountain forests, to which he never gave a second thought.<\/p>\n<p><em>Alison Haigh is an Environmental Biology and Applied Ecology major at Cornell University (Class of 2019). Her work on this story was made possible by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Science Communication Fund, with support from Jay Branegan (Cornell \u201972) and Stefania Pittaluga.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Autumn 2017 issue of Living Bird magazine. Subscribe now. Most male and female woodpeckers wear similar, if not matching, plumage, but Williamson\u2019s Sapsuckers did not get the memo.<a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/the-people-behind-the-birds-named-for-people-williamsons-sapsucker\/\" title=\"ReadThe People Behind the Birds Named for People: Robert Stockton Williamson\">&#8230; Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":32203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_birdpress_living_bird_toc":0,"_birdpress_living_bird_toc_title":"","_birdpress_featured_image":false,"_birdpress_hero_toggle":false,"_birdpress_hero_type":"image","_birdpress_hero_image_type":"image","_birdpress_hero_style":"default","_birdpress_hero_ratio":"","_birdpress_hero_h1":"","_birdpress_hero_media_id":0,"_birdpress_hero_media_array_id":[],"_birdpress_hero_media_array":[],"_birdpress_hero_media":0,"_birdpress_hero_video_id":0,"_birdpress_hero_video":0,"_birdpress_hero_youtube":"","_birdpress_hero_content":true,"_birdpress_hero_byline":"","_birdpress_hero_byline_bottom":"","_birdpress_hero_button_link":"","_birdpress_hero_button_text":"","_birdpress_hero_button_color":"","_birdpress_hero_date":false,"original_guid":"","_birdpress_hide_search":false,"_birdpress_page_width":"","_birdpress_global_cta":false,"_birdpress_widget_sidebar":"","_birdpress_next_article":0,"_birdpress_next_article_title":"","_birdpress_prev_article":0,"_birdpress_prev_article_title":"","_birdpress_sub_navigation_id":0,"_birdpress_sub_navigation":"","_birdpress_sub_navigation_title":false,"_birdpress_anchor_navigation_id":0,"_birdpress_anchor_navigation":"","_birdpress_postType":"both","_birdpress_categoryID":0,"_birdpress_tagID":0,"_birdpress_parentPostID":0,"_birdpress_parentPostTitle":"","_birdpress_menuID":0,"_birdpress_menuName":"","_birdpress_listHeader":"","_birdpress_listLayout":"card-display","_birdpress_listColumns":"","_birdpress_maxItems":12,"_birdpress_listPaginate":true,"_birdpress_displaySort":true,"_birdpress_sortOrder":"DESC","_birdpress_sortBy":"date","_birdpress_listID":"","_birdpress_listClass":"","_birdpress_displayImages":true,"_birdpress_displayCaptions":false,"_birdpress_displayExcerpts":false,"_birdpress_attTop":"","_birdpress_attBottom":"","_birdpress_showLogos":false,"_birdpress_post_logo":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_topic":0,"wds_primary_content-format":0,"wds_primary_cornell-lab-project":0,"wds_primary_host-project":0,"wds_primary_read-more-tag":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[1103,998],"content-format":[1055],"cornell-lab-project":[1069],"host-project":[],"read-more-tag":[],"class_list":["post-32202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","topic-news","topic-news-and-features","content-format-article","cornell-lab-project-living-bird-magazine"],"metadata":{"associated-posts":[""],"wpa_off":[""],"_edit_lock":["1644369478:4"],"_edit_last":["2"],"_thumbnail_id":["32203"],"wdsi_message_id":[""],"wdsi_do_not_show":[""],"custom-byline":["<h5>By 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