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Yellow Bellied Sapsucker

Description:

The Yellow Bellied Sapsucker is a spirited, medium-sized woodpeckerthat makes its home in southern Canada and the northern parts of theUnited States. The bird is 7-9 inches high and has a wingspan of 13-16inches. They weigh between 1.52 and 1.94 ounces.

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is the only woodpecker that has a verticalwhite stripe down its side. It has a very striking red crown andforehead with a black border.

The face is striped with black and white and the back is black with whitish barring. The upper chest is also black and there's black barring on the side of the belly. The Yellow bellied Sapsucker gets it name from its yellow belly, back, and toppart of the chest. Its wings are black with white spots, and thewoodpecker has black eyes, feet and bill. The rump is white and tail isdark with black and white barring on central most and outermostretricies. While the female does have a red head, she has a whitethroat and chin, while the male is entirely red in this area.

Diet:

Food consists of sap, fruit and insects from the leaves of plants.Yellow bellied Sapsuckers can be attracted to backyard birdfeeders. They make two different kinds of holes in trees: thefirst, through which the sap is lapped, is round, deep, and placed in avertical line, one above another up and down the tree. The second kindof hole is rectangular and not as deep, it will continually peck at thehole to keep the sap flowing. They acquire insects by every availablemeans, such as tapping, probing, prying and fly catching.

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Nesting Habits:

The Yellow bellied Sapsucker will frequent manmade birdhouses, but the chances of them breeding there is rare. However,they do use manmade materials for drumming, including metal roofs andstreet signs. It is not uncommon to see this woodpecker drumming eachday on the same metal sign. For bedding, however, they prefer to make anest in the hole of a dead tree. The female lays 2-7 white eggs.Male and female birds are very devoted to one another, and even taketurns in building the nest.

More Information:

The bird's habitat is aspen and birch trees, along the edge of a forestor stream. They like to winter in forests, preferably in woods that aresemi-open.

The Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker's breeding range is from thecentral part of Alaska to Newfoundland, then south to southern Alberta,northern parts of Pennsylvania and Iowa and down into the Appalachiansand North Carolina. The Sapsucker is the only woodpecker on the easterncoast that is totally migratory. They are known to head as far south asPanama. In Alberta, where the Sapsucker territory is close to that ofthe Red-napped Sapsucker, the two will breed and form a hybrid.

With the name Sapsucker, you might think that tree sap was this bird'sprimary food but that is not the case. In fact, the Yellow BelliedSapsucker is mainly an insect-eater. It ranks only next to theFlicker as an ant eater, with 36% of his food coming from ants. He alsodevours wasps, beetles, bugs, grasshoppers and crickets, and eats moreflies than any other woodpecker.Because the shallow holes they make in tree trunks are used by otherspecies of wild birds,the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is regarded as "a keystone species,"meaning that his existence is vital to the entire bird community.

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What Other Visitors Have Said

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...

Drumming on the Downspout
I enjoy watching birds. However, I wish the yellow-bellied sapsucker that is hanging out in my woods could be seen and NOT heard.

At approxiately ...

Eating My Backyard
My dad and I think that yellow-bellied woodpeckers are responsible for the slow dieing of 5 our pine trees. We are putting Tanglefoot all over the trunk,...

Help! Not rated yet
Hi, Sue... love this web site, by the way. I have a bit of a problem bird. A yellow bellied sapsucker is destroying my very expensive
Scots pines that ...

House Guest Not rated yet
My mom was out walking my dog this morning when she heard a series of loud piercing cries from the end of the street which piqued my dog and her interest....

Linette Not rated yet
How do you keep Yellow Bellied Sap Suckers out of a Hummingbird feeder? One little guy drained two of my feeders in a day, a lot of it went on the ground ...

Sapsucker visitation Not rated yet
What a treat to do a double-take, thinking a Downey is visiting my inverted suet feeder, until I put on my glasses and see the red crest extending forward ...

Woodpecker at Hummingbird feeder Not rated yet
For the last couple of weeks a woodpecker has been visiting my hummingbird feeders.

His head,from his bill down to the middle of the back of his neck ...

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