| The head of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is striped with black and white. And while the male has a red crown and throat, the female has only the red crown with a white throat. The underneath parts are a dull yellowish color in adults and a dull light brown in immature birds. The upperparts are a dull mixture of black mottled with off whites with striking white wing stripes which are visible both at rest and during flight. Their voice is a mewing sound resembling the sound of a cat or a downward "cheerrr". Their drumming starts in a rapid succession of thumps and ends with a number of disconnected taps. In their southern habitat they are difficult to find as they tend to be quiet and will hitch around to the other side of the tree when approached.
Their breeding habitat consists of the open deciduous and mixed forests of central and eastern Canada and the northern United States around the Great Lakes and New England as well as the Appalachian Mountains down to North Carolina. They are especially attracted to wooded river bottoms and aspen groves. When the sap stops flowing in September or October they will head south. They winter across the southern United States from Texas to Florida, as far north as New Jersey along the Atlantic Seaboard and south into tropical America.
Males arrive north about a week ahead of the females, usually in March or April and begin to stake out their territory. During courtship the both sexes perform drumming duets both to proclaim their territory and to attract a mate. Ritual tapping near the nest entrance is also performed. They will also perform fluttering courtship flights sometimes perching raising their crest and bill to expose their throat and bowing. The will also perform crest raising and bill raising as well as flicking and drooping their wings when antagonized.
The clutch consists of 5 or 6 white eggs laid in a gourd shaped tree cavity which is excavated by both sexes and lined with chips. They select both live and dead trees as well as dead portions of a live tree to make their nest. Birch, poplar, or aspen trees afflicted with a heart softening tinder fungus are preferred. And while they sometimes use the same tree over from one year to the next, they will not necessarily use the same nest. The trees that the male selects for the nest will often be near water. The eggs are incubated by both sexes, with the male taking over these duties during the night. The eggs hatch in 12 to 13 days and the young are able to fly about 27 days later. The young are fed sap, fruit, insects, and regurgitated material. Upon fledging the nest they are taught the art of sapsucking and remain dependent upon their parent for only a few weeks.
Their diet consist of sap which they obtain by boring holes in as many as 250 different species of trees and allowing the sap to ooze out. The holes they drill are recognizable as they tend to line them up horizontally. Each hole has a slight downward trajectory so that it collects the sap. They also feed on the ants and other insects attracted to the sap. They will return to the same trees over and over again and will aggressively defend their food source from other birds like the Ruby-throated Hummingbird or small mammals attracted to the sap. Unfortunately this damages the tree and allows points of entry for fungi and other plant diseases. They can be attracted to feeders with peanut butter, suet and occasionally hummingbird feeders.
Their tongues are well adapted to the purpose of gathering sap. Like other woodpeckers their tongue retracts and wraps around the back of their skull. Their tongues are not nearly as long as those of other woodpeckers like the Hairy Woodpecker. Their tongues lack the barbed ends of other woodpeckers that is used to gather insects and is replaced with a fine brush-like tip ideal for gathering sap.
Length: 8 1/2 inches.
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