Chapter M: P. Skinner says, in his Yellowstone National Park notes: “This (1)

woodpecker is rather uncommon, but I have seen it in coniferous forests between 6,500 and 8,000 feet, in firs, lodgepole pine, and Engelmann spruce. I have also seen it on dead trees and on telephone poles. I have seen this woodpecker in this Park only between May and October.”

_Nesting._--At an altitude of about 9,000 feet in the mountains of Colorado, in or near Estes Park, John H. Flanagan (1911) collected a set of four eggs of the alpine three-toed woodpecker. “The hole was in an aspen stub, nine feet from the ground and about a foot or eighteen inches from the top, and just before the guide reached the hole the bird flew out. * * *

“The entrance to the nesting cavity was about one and one-half inches in diameter; the cavity itself about nine or ten inches in depth and quite large at the bottom. The eggs were laid on a few chips.”

In north-central Colorado, Edwin R. Warren (1912) found a nest of this woodpecker “in a dead Engelmann spruce, which was twenty-five inches in diameter at the base, and twenty at the nest hole, the latter being seven feet above ground. The nest was eight inches deep, the entrance one and three-quarters inches in diameter; the thickness of the wood on the front side of the hole was two and three-quarters inches, and the cavity was five inches from front to back, and three wide. There were a few chips in the bottom, as well as a few of the birds’ droppings. There were two young, about ready to fly, though I had no difficulty in posing them on the tree for pictures; they showed little or no fear.”

Randolph Jenks (1934) discovered two nests of the alpine three-toed woodpecker on the Kaibab Plateau, near the east rim of the Grand Canyon, in northern Arizona. One was in “a hole in an aspen tree, two and one-half inches in diameter, opening to the southeast, twelve feet from the ground. The cavity was eight inches deep and the nest was lined with a thick layer of maggot-infested sawdust. In spite of the crawling competitors, the nestlings, a male and a female, seemed quite contented.” This was on June 30, 1931. Several days later another nest was found, also on the Plateau, at an elevation of 8,100 feet; this nest was “in a hole about sixty feet above the ground in a western yellow pine.”

Dr. Edgar A. Mearns (1890b) writes:

The Alpine Three-toed Woodpecker breeds commonly throughout
the pine belt, seldom ascending far into the spruce woods
of the highest peaks [in the mountains of Arizona]. On the
northwestern slope of San Francisco Mountain I discovered a
nest of this species on June 8, 1887. The female was seen
alone pecking at a large yellow pine, which, although dead,
still retained its bark and was quite solid. While feeding
she uttered a peculiar, harsh, nasal cry. I shot her, and
then noticed a small, neatly bored hole in the south side
of the pine trunk, about 30 feet from the ground and away
from branches. With the aid of a rope, and taking a start
from the saddle, I was scarcely able to climb to the nest,
which the male did not quit until I was well up; then he
came out and uttered a sudden, sharp “whip-whip-whip” in
a menacing tone, remaining hard by while I worked with
saw and chisel. It took me nearly half an hour to make an
opening sufficiently large to admit the hand, as the burrow
was situated so extraordinarily deep. Two young, male and
female, with feathers just sprouting, were found on a bed
of small chips at the bottom of the burrow, not more than
8 inches lower than the entrance, but in the very heart of
the tree, the cavity being oblique and pear-shaped, and
having the strong odor characteristic of Woodpeckers’ nests
in general. Both parents and their progeny were preserved,
and are now in the American Museum collection. The irides
of the adults were dark cherry red; their feet, claws, and
basal half of mandible plumbeous, the rest of the bill
being plumbeous black.

_Eggs._--The alpine three-toed woodpecker is said to lay five eggs to a set, but probably the set oftener consists of fewer eggs. I have seen no eggs of this subspecies; and the only measurements I have been able to get are those from a set of five eggs, collected by A. Treganza in Salt Lake County, Utah, on June 3, 1916; these are in the P. B. Philipp collection in the American Museum of Natural History. The measurements average 24.52 by 17.52 millimeters, rather large for the species; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =25.3= by =17.7= and =24.1= by =17.4= millimeters.

_Food._--Mrs. Bailey (1928) says that the food of this woodpecker consists of “over 75 percent, destructive wood-boring larvae of caterpillars and beetles. The Three-toed Woodpeckers rank high as conservators of the forest, eliminating annually, as Professor Beal has estimated, some 13,675 of the grubs most destructive to forests. The scarcity of these useful woodpeckers makes their protection and encouragement especially important.”

SPHYRAPICUS VARIUS VARIUS (Linnaeus)

YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER

PLATES 18, 19

HABITS

CONTRIBUTED BY WINSOR MARRETT TYLER

_Spring._--It is spring in the Transition Zone when in April the yellow-bellied sapsucker passes through on the way from its winter quarters to its breeding ground in the Canadian Zone. If spring is tardy most of the trees may be leafless, but many of them have blossomed, and the sap is running.

At this season the sapsucker is light-hearted and jaunty compared to the sober, quiet bird that visited us the autumn before. The breeding season is near at hand, and if two birds meet they often engage in a sort of game, a precursory courtship, wherein one bird flies at the other in a playful attack; the other eludes the rush of the oncoming bird by a sudden, last-minute retreat--winding around the branch on which it rests, or sliding off into the air. In these pursuits in and out among the branches we are impressed by the agility and grace of the birds and by the easy way they direct their course through the air. They do not appear to impel themselves by strength of wing alone, but, especially in their slanting descents, they let the force of gravity pull them swiftly along, and then, by the impetus of the speed attained, glide upward to a perch. They seem to swing from branch to branch with little effort, slowly opening and closing their wings to guide them on their way. As we watch them we are reminded of trapeze artists in the circus.

But the new sap is running, and the birds quickly tap the supply by drilling into the bark of their favorite trees and drink of the sap as it flows freely from the wounds.

Every spring the birds come to a sturdy yellow birch tree on the Boston Public Garden, a species of tree with which they must be familiar on their breeding grounds in the north. The sap flows plenteously in mid-April from the many punctures that the birds make; it wets a large portion of the trunk of the tree and often drips to the ground from the branches. The birds stand clear of the tree as they feed at the sap wells with only the feet and the tip of the tail touching the bark. The tail is braced against the trunk at an angle of about 45°, and the feet reach far forward to grasp the bark opposite the bend of the wing. I have never seen a sapsucker crouch against this wet bark as a downy woodpecker commonly does when digging out a grub--like a cat hunched up lapping a saucer of milk. When a bird wishes to move to a point below where it is perched, it jumps from the tree and floats in the air, then turning, with its wings held out somewhat, dives head-downward, drifting in an easy, leisurely manner as if moving under water; then, just before alighting, it rights itself. If you come too near, the sapsucker scrambles around to the rear of the limb, and if you step close up to the tree, the bird starts away in free, sweeping curves, like a skater over the ice, the white in the wing flashing out.

Eaton (1914) notes that “during the migration it is evident that the male birds arrive first, for during 15 years of continuous records which I have kept with this object in view I have found that male birds are the first to be seen each year and no females are seen for several days after the first males arrive.”

Audubon (1842) records the following unique observation:

While travelling I observed that they performed their
migration by day, in loose parties or families of six or
seven individuals, flying at a great height, and at the
intervals between their sailings and the flappings of their
wings, emitting their remarkable plaintive cries. When
alighting towards sunset, they descended with amazing speed
in a tortuous manner, and first settled on the tops of the
highest trees, where they remained perfectly silent for
awhile, after which they betook themselves to the central
parts of the thickest trees, and searched along the trunks
for abandoned holes of Squirrels or Woodpeckers, in which
they spent the night, several together in the same hole.

A. B. Klugh (1909) reports a remarkably large gathering of sapsuckers on their northward migration. He says:

On the morning of April 17th, 1909, the city of Kingston,
Ontario, was alive with yellow-bellied sapsuckers.

From my study window I saw some twenty of them on the trees
at the lodge of the park and on going out to investigate
I found from one to four on nearly every tree. As a
conservative estimate I placed the number of birds in the
park at three hundred. * * *

The probable cause of this immense wave of yellow-bellied
sapsuckers striking Kingston lies in the strong gale from
the north which was blowing on the night of April 16th, the
birds apparently dropping as soon as they had crossed the
lake.

_Courtship._--Little has been recorded on the courtship of the yellow-bellied sapsucker, but we may get a hint of its early stages at least as the birds pass northward--the increased interest in each other shown by their lively pursuits and their rapid whirlings among the branches, as noted under “Spring.”

George Miksch Sutton (1928b) speaks thus of the birds on their nesting ground in Pennsylvania: “In late May and June the mewing cry was familiar and they occasionally indulged in strange courtship antics, flashing through the tops of the trees, calling excitedly in tones resembling those of a flicker, and dancing about with wings and tail spread in a manner utterly foreign to the usually stolid bearing of migrant individuals.”

Of the spring drumming, perhaps a part of courtship, Dr. Harry C. Oberholser (1896b) says:

In spring the drumming of the yellow-bellied sapsucker
may usually be easily recognized by the following
peculiarities. Four or five taps given in quick succession
are followed by a short pause, this being soon succeeded
by two short quick taps; then another pause, and two more
taps in somewhat less rapid succession than the first;
followed by yet another pause, and two additional taps
still a little slower. This is sometimes slightly varied
with regard to the number of taps; and occasionally also
the latter part consists only of single quick taps with an
increasing interval toward the last.

The difference between the tapping of the sapsucker and of the hairy and the downy woodpecker is described in the life history of the latter bird. Wendell Taber told Mr. Bent that he succeeded in calling up three of these birds by imitating their drumming with a fountain pen on a dead tree; one of them alighted on the tree on which he was drumming.

_Nesting._--William Brewster (1876a), writing of the nesting of the sapsucker at Umbagog Lake, Maine, says:

They arrive from the South, where they spend the winter,
from the middle to the last of April, and, pairing being
soon effected, commence at once the excavation of their
nests. The trees usually selected are large dead birches,
and a decided preference is manifested for the vicinity
of water, though some nests occur on high ground in the
interior of the woods, but never so abundantly there as
along the margin of rivers and lakes. Both sexes work
alternately, relieving each other at frequent intervals,
the bird not employed usually clinging near the hole and
encouraging its toiling mate, by an occasional low cry.
With the deepening of the hole arises the necessity for
increased labor, as the rapidly accumulating debris must
be removed, and the bird now appears at frequent intervals
at the entrance, and, dropping its mouthful of chips,
returns to its work. A week or more is occupied in the
completion of the nest, the time varying considerably with
the relative hardness of the wood. A small quantity of the
finer chips are left at the bottom to serve as a bed for
the eggs. * * * The labor of incubation, like all other
duties, is shared equally by the two sexes. * * *

All nests examined upon this occasion [an occasion when
he found half a dozen nests] were of uniform gourd-like
shape, with the sides very smoothly and evenly chiselled.
They averaged about fourteen inches in depth by five in
diameter at the widest point, while the diameter of the
exterior hole varied from 1.25 to 1.60 inches. So small,
indeed, was this entrance in proportion to the size of the
bird, that in many cases they were obliged to struggle
violently for several seconds in either going out or in.
The nests in most instances were very easily discovered, as
the bird was almost always in the immediate vicinity, and
if the tree was approached would fly to the hole and utter
a few low calls, which would bring out its sitting mate,
when both would pass to and from the spot, emitting notes
of anxiety and alarm. The bird not employed in incubation
has also a peculiar habit of clinging to the trunk just
below the hole, in a perfectly motionless and strikingly
pensive attitude, apparently looking in, though from the
conformation of the interior it would be impossible for it
to see its mate or eggs. In this position it will remain
without moving for many minutes at a time.

Henry Mousley (1916) states that the bird “often nests year after year in the same tree (but not necessarily in the same hole) the favourite ones here [Hatley, Quebec] being elm, poplar, and butternut. * * * Of two nests examined the average dimensions are as follows, viz.: entrance hole 1⅜ inches in diameter, extreme depth 10¾ inches, and width 2⅞ inches.”

Philipp and Bowdish (1917) say of the nesting site in New Brunswick: “The favorite situation was the dead heart of a live poplar, most often on the bank of a stream, and facing same, but some nests were in totally dead trees, of different kinds. They ranged from eight to forty feet from ground.”

Bendire (1895) says that the birds “are devoted parents, and when incubation is somewhat advanced, or the young have been recently hatched, the bird on the nest is loath to leave it, and will sometimes allow itself to be captured rather than to desert its treasures.”

_Eggs._--[AUTHOR’S NOTE: The yellow-bellied sapsucker lays four to seven eggs to a set, though five or six eggs are more commonly found. They vary from ovate to elliptical-ovate and sometimes to elliptical-oval. The shell is smooth and either dull or moderately glossy. They are pure white, like all woodpeckers’ eggs. The measurements of 52 eggs average 22.44 by 16.92 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =24.9= by 17.0, 23.8 by =18.0=, =20.57= by 16.26, and 22.1 by =15.5= millimeters.]

_Young._--As in the case of most nestling birds reared in a hole in a tree, little is known of the young sapsuckers while they are in the nest.

Frank Bolles (1892) speaks of “a nest filled with noisy fledglings whose squealing sounded afar in the otherwise silent woods. * * * The parent birds came frequently to the tree, and their arrival was always greeted by more vigorous crying from the young.”

William Brewster (1876a), in his study of the bird at Umbagog Lake, Maine, says: “The young leave the nest in July, and for a long time the brood remains together, being still fed by the parents. They are very playful, sporting about the tree-trunks and chasing one another continually.”

Frank Bolles (1892) has given a very interesting, detailed account of rearing three nestlings, about to be fledged, over a period of three and a half months. The three birds were dissimilar enough in coloring to be distinguished from one another; they proved to be two males and one female; and they soon developed marked differences in conduct and personality. Mr. Bolles at first kept them in a large cage in which they had ample space to climb about and later allowed them to fly around a room. They became very tame, letting him handle them freely. They subsisted almost entirely on maple syrup and water in equal parts, fed by hand at first, but in a few days they drank readily from a basin. They caught a few flies and ate some other insects that entered the cage, attracted by the syrup. Mr. Bolles says, however, that “the number of insects caught by them in this way was small, and I do not think amounted at any time to ten percent of their food.”

The birds were lively and apparently in perfect health from the time they were captured, July 7, until October 11, when one of them, the female, began to droop. Two days later she had a convulsion in the morning and died in the afternoon. Autopsy showed that her body was well nourished and that the organs were apparently normal except the liver, which was “very large, deeply bile-stained, and very soft.”

A week later the other two birds died after exhibiting the same symptoms as the first bird. The Department of Agriculture examined the body of one of these birds and reported enlargement and fatty degeneration of the liver.

Mr. Bolles remarks that “the most probable cause of this enlargement of the liver, which seems to have been the reason for the death of the three sapsuckers, was an undue proportion of sugar in their diet. In a wild state they would have eaten insects every day and kept their stomachs well filled with the chitinous parts of acid insects. Under restraint they secured fewer and fewer insects, until during the last few weeks of their lives, they had practically no solid food of any kind.”

Summarizing his observations, he says:

From these experiments I draw the following conclusions:
(1), that the yellow-bellied woodpecker may be successfully
kept in captivity for a period corresponding to that
during which as a resident bird he taps trees for their
sap, sustained during this time upon a diet of which from
90 to 100 per cent is diluted maple syrup; (2), that this
fact affords evidence of an extremely strong character,
in confirmation and support of the theory that when the
yellow-bellied woodpecker taps trees for their sap he uses
the sap as his principal article of food, and not primarily
as a bait to attract insects.

Winton Weydemeyer (1926) in Montana “observed a pair of red-naped sapsuckers * * * gathering sap to feed their young in the nest. A regular tree-route, followed alternately by the male and female, included a quaking aspen, a larger alder, and a large willow, in which borings had been made. The birds flew directly from the nest to the aspen, and gathered the sap that had accumulated since the last visit; then flew to the alder and to the willow, repeating the process; and finally flew back to the nest, without hunting for insects. Occasionally the male would vary the process by catching a few flies from the air, eating some and carrying some to the nest.”

Forbush (1927) gives the incubation period of the yellow-bellied sapsucker as “probably about 14 days.”

A. Dawes DuBois furnishes the following note: “Yellow-bellied sapsuckers were observed feeding young in a nest, in Hennepin County, Minn., on July 5, 1937. The nest was about 25 feet above ground in a partially dead tree at edge of willow-and-alder thicket adjoining woods. Both parents were bringing food. The squeaky note of the young was repeated with such regularity (about four times a second) as to indicate that only one nestling was uttering it. When the nestling was being fed at the entrance, by the poking method, these notes went up to a higher pitch, and were sometimes choked off almost to inaudibility.

“Two days later, the parents were still feeding very frequently. The male, who on the first day had been seen to bring a bright red berry about the size of a pea, again brought a bit of small red fruit. On one occasion, when the parents were away, the nestling put its head out of the hole; but it did not do so when being fed. In general, alarm calls of the parents had little if any effect upon the squeaking of the nestling, though at one time, July 7, the squeaking seemed to cease for a short interval when the parent gave the alarm notes. For the most part the series of squeaky notes is continuous. It was by hearing these sounds that this nest was discovered.”

_Plumages._--[AUTHOR’S NOTE: The young sapsucker is hatched naked, as is the case with other woodpeckers, but the juvenal plumage is acquired before the young bird leaves the nest. The sexes are alike in the juvenal plumage. A young bird, not fully grown and probably not long out of the nest, taken June 25, has the black crown largely concealed by the long brownish tips of the feathers, “ochraceous-tawny” to “buckthorn brown”; each of the black feathers of the back has a large terminal spot of grayish white, or yellowish white, producing a boldly spotted pattern; the nape and sides of the neck have smaller spots of the same color; the wings and tail are as in the adult-fall plumage; the chin and upper throat are dull white or pale buffy brownish; the lower throat and chest are pale brownish, broken by crescentic bars of dusky; and the center of the breast and the abdomen are pale yellow or yellowish white. Changes soon begin to take place, at irregular intervals, during which the sexes begin to differentiate. Young males may begin to show traces of red in the throat patch as early as July; and in August some may have the crown largely crimson; the black patch on the chest does not usually appear until much of the red has been assumed, but some birds show considerable of both red and black before the end of August. Other young males may not acquire much red before the end of September. Progress toward maturity continues all through fall, winter, and early spring by protracted partial molts; probably most individuals acquire the fully adult plumage by early spring, but I have seen birds that had not fully completed this prenuptial molt by the end of April.

Young females follow the same sequence of molts but are somewhat later in developing the red crown, which apparently is not acquired until October or later. The adult body plumage of both sexes is acquired during winter and early spring. Adults have a partial prenuptial molt about the head and throat early in spring and a complete molt late in summer and fall. In fresh fall plumage, the lighter markings are more or less suffused with yellowish or buffy tints, and the belly is deeper yellow.]

_Food._--W. L. McAtee (1911) learned by stomach examinations that the yellow-bellied sapsucker consumed cambium and bast averaging 16.71 percent of its diet. He continues:

It must be noted also that cambium is a very delicate,
perishable material, at certain times no more than a
jelly, and thus never receives a percentage valuation in
examinations of long-preserved stomachs corresponding to
its bulk when first swallowed. Neither do we get any
record of the sap consumed by these birds [the three
species of sapsucker] and they are inordinate tipplers.
Hence the value of the percentages cited lies not so much
in their accuracy as to the quantity of cambium eaten as in
the fact that they indicate a steady consumption of this
important substance. There is no doubt that cambium, bast,
and sap are depended upon by sapsuckers as stable diet.

We may get some idea of the amount of sap consumed by the bird from Frank Bolles’ (1892) record of his three young captive sapsuckers. He says: “Ordinarily they disposed of eight teaspoonfuls [of diluted syrup] each during the twenty-four hours. Part of this evaporated, and part was probably secured by black ants which visited the cage by night.”

Bolles (1891), describing the method of feeding of birds in the wild, says: “The dipping was done regularly and rather quickly, often two or three times in each hole. The sap glistened on the bill as it was withdrawn. I could sometimes see the tongue move. The bill was directed towards the lower, inner part of the drill, which, as I found by examination, was cut so as to hold the sap.”

This is the common method of feeding, but sometimes, when two or more holes have coalesced into a vertical groove, the bird will run its bill upward along the edge of the wound, sipping the sap much as we might, with our finger, wipe off a drop running down from a pitcher’s lip.

McAtee (1911) states that “about four-fifths of the insect food of the three species of sapsuckers consists of ants, the eating of which may be reckoned slightly in the birds’ favor. The remainder of the food is made up of beetles, wasps, and a great variety of other insects, including, however, practically no wood-boring larvae or other special enemies of trees. The birds’ vegetable food can not be cited in their behalf, as it consists almost entirely of wild fruits, which are of no importance, and of cambium, the securing of which results in serious damage.”

F. E. L. Beal (1895) mentions, as articles in the sapsucker’s diet, the berries of dogwood, black alder, Virginia creeper, and wild black cherries. Winfrid A. Stearns (1883) says: “Nuts, berries, and other fruits vary its fare; and to procure these it may often be seen creeping and hanging in the strangest attitudes among the terminal twigs of trees, so slender that they bend with the weight of the bird.” Audubon (1842), in his plate of the sapsucker, gives an animated picture of the bird thus engaged.

Brewster (1876a) shows the bird as an expert flycatcher. “From an humble delver after worms and larvae, it rises to the proud independence of a Flycatcher, taking its prey on wing as unerringly as the best marksman of them all. From its perch on the spire of some tall stub it makes a succession of rapid sorties after its abundant victims and then flies off to its nest with bill and mouth crammed full of insects, principally large _Diptera_.”

_Behavior._--The sapsucker, a bird of wide distribution and in some parts of its range the commonest woodpecker, has come to be regarded with disfavor by man, who accuses it of harming the trees it drills to obtain its food. Man accuses the bird of weakening trees by drawing away their life-blood and of killing many by girdling them with multiple punctures, and he blames the bird for marring the beauty of trunk and limb by pitting and scarring them.

A study of the habits of the sapsucker shows that its work on the trees varies with the season and, on the Atlantic coast, is spread over a territory 3,000 miles long or more. During the migrations, northward and southward, when the birds are scattered and on the move, comparatively little harm is done. Here and there a limb may be killed--either girdled or opened so that infection enters--and rarely a tree may die, but the chief effect is an esthetic one, the scarring of the bark with pits, notably in orchards where it is a matter of common observation that most of the pitted trees are in perfect health. On their breeding ground and in their winter quarters, however, where the birds are concentrated and remain in one locality for a considerable time, the effect is more serious. In the Southern States especially, the lumber industry suffers material financial loss due to the fact that deep in the wood cut from trees on which sapsuckers have worked extensively, when the trees were small, the grain is distorted and made unsightly by the scars of the wounds inflicted by the birds years before.

From an exhaustive study of the economic status of the woodpeckers by W. L. McAtee (1911), the salient points in reference to the yellow-bellied sapsucker are quoted below:

The results of sapsucker attacks on trees are so uniform
and characteristic as to be distinguished easily from the
work of other woodpeckers. Sapsucker holes are drilled
clear through the bark and cambium and often into the wood.
They vary in outline from circular to squarish elliptical,
in the latter case usually having the longer diameter
across the limb or trunk. Generally they are arranged in
rings or partial rings around the trunk, but they often
fall into vertical series. Deeply-cut holes arranged with
such regularity are made only by sapsuckers.

After the original pattern of holes is completed, the
sapsuckers often continue their work, taking out the bark
between holes until sometimes large areas are cleanly
removed. This often occurs on small limbs or trunks,
where long strips of bark up and down the tree are
removed, leaving narrow strings between. This effect is
also produced by continually enlarging single punctures
by excavating at the upper end, * * * which is done to
secure fresh inner bark and a constant supply of sap.
Occasionally, after a tree has been checkered or grooved
after the above-described systematic methods, it may be
barked indiscriminately, leaving only ragged patches of
bark. * * * Even in such cases, however, traces of the
regularly arranged punctures are likely to remain, and
there is no difficulty in recognizing the work as that of
sapsuckers, for no other woodpecker makes anything like it
on sound, living trees.

All holes, grooves, or irregular openings made by
sapsuckers penetrate at least to the outermost layer of
sapwood or nongrowing part of the tree. This results in the
removal of the exterior rough bark, the delicate inner bark
or bast, and the cambium. Since the elaborated sap (upon
which the growth of trees depends) is conveyed and stored
in these layers, it is evident that sapsuckers attack the
trees in a vital part. Each ring of punctures severs at
its particular level part of the sap-carrying vessels,
another ring made above destroys others, and so the process
continues until in extreme cases circulation of elaborated
sap stops and the tree dies. When the injury to the vital
tissues is not carried so far, only a limb here and there
may die, or the tree may only have its vitality lowered
for a few years. If the attacks cease, it may completely
recover. * * *

Recovery, however, does not mean that the tree has escaped
permanent injury. Patches of cambium of varying size may
be killed. Growth ceases at these points and the dead and
discolored areas are finally covered by wood and bark.
Until this process is completed, the tree is disfigured by
pits with dead bark and wood at the bottom, and even when
completely healed, the spot remains a source of weakness.
In fact, all sapsucker pecking is followed by more or less
rotting and consequent weakening of the wood, and renders
trees more liable to be broken by the wind or other causes.

Sapsucker injuries usually stimulate growth of the wood
layers at the points attacked, so that they become much
thicker than usual. This results in a slight swelling of
the bark, and when the birds reopen the old wounds year
after year, as they habitually do, succeeding wood layers
make excess growth and in time shelflike girdles develop.

McAtee (1911) gives a long list of trees attacked by the bird. Summarizing, he says: “Condensing the information contained in the foregoing lists, we find that the yellow-bellied sapsucker attacks no fewer than 246 species of native trees and 6 vines, besides 31 kinds of introduced trees. Twenty-nine of these trees and 1 vine are known to be sometimes killed and 28 others are much disfigured or seriously reduced in vitality.”

Of “the effects of sapsucker work on lumber and finished wood products” he says:

Those relations of sapsuckers to trees which are
detrimental to man’s interest are by no means confined to
the external disfiguration, the weakening, or killing of
trees. Indeed in the aggregate sapsuckers inflict much
greater financial loss by rendering defective the wood
of the far larger number of trees which they work upon
moderately but do not kill. Blemishes, reducing the value,
appear in the lumber from such trees and in the various
articles into which it is manufactured.

These defects consist of distortion of the grain, formation
of knotty growths and cavities in the wood, extensive
staining, fat streaks, resin deposits, and other blemishes.
All of them result from injuries to the cambium, their
variety being due to the differences in the healing.
Besides blemishes, ornamental effects are sometimes
produced during the healing of sapsucker wounds, such as
small sound stains, curly grain, and a form of bird’s-eye.

McAtee (1911) estimates that “the annual loss for the whole United States [from the impairment of lumber] is more than a million and a quarter dollars.” He continues: “Sapsuckers do not prey upon any especially destructive insects and do comparatively little to offset the damage they inflict. Hence the yellow-bellied sapsucker * * * must be included in the class of injurious species.”

The situation is quite different on the breeding ground. Here the birds resort to a group of trees, and confine their feeding activities almost exclusively to them. Frank Bolles (1891), in his study of the bird in the region about Mount Chocorua, N. H., terms these stations “orchards.” He describes one of them as consisting “of about a dozen canoe birches and red maples, most of which were dead, some decayed and fallen. The tree most recently tapped was a red maple about forty feet high and two feet through at the butt.” Of another “orchard,” half a mile away, he says: “The tree in use last year was nearly dead. Two neighboring birches showing scars of earlier years were quite dead. All stood on the crest of a kame. About three rods along the ridge to the eastward a red oak and two or three canoe birches were in use by the birds.” This report shows that sapsuckers undoubtedly cause the death of many trees as they return to their “orchards” year after year, but most of these trees are of small value, especially in the heavily forested regions where the birds commonly breed.

Bolles (1891) also notes the association of the sapsuckers with the ruby-throated hummingbirds, which were attracted to the pits by the running sap. In the main, hosts and guests got along well enough together, although attacks occurred on both sides from time to time. He says: “My notes refer again and again to the spiteful treatment of the Hummers at Orchard No. 1. On the other hand at Orchard No. 2 they say ‘Male and young one dipping. Hummer comes in and dips several times _between them_ and they offer no objection.’”

Major Bendire (1895), half in jest, we may presume, brings an accusation of inebriety against the sapsucker in these words:

That it should be fond of the sweet sap of trees does not
surprise me, as this contains considerable nourishment,
and likewise attracts a good many insects, which the birds
eat; but it is not so easy to account for its especial
predilection for the sap of the mountain ash, which
has a decidedly bitter taste, and I believe possesses
intoxicating properties, unless it be taken for the latter
purpose; and the fact that after drinking freely of the sap
of this tree it may often be seen clinging to the trunk for
hours at a time, as if stupefied, seems to confirm this
view. It is well known that some of our birds indulge in
such disreputable practices, and possibly this species must
be included in the number, as there are sots among birds as
well as among the genus _Homo_.

_Voice._--Just as the sapsucker in its behavior is conspicuous, almost boisterous, at one season of the year and retiring and unobtrusive at another, in the same way it is very noisy in spring and the early part of the nesting period and comparatively silent afterward.

Dr. C. Hart Merriam (1879) speaks of the bird thus: “In few species can the date of arrival, in spring, be ascertained with such precision as in the bird now under consideration; for, no sooner are they here, and recovered from the fatigue of their northward journey, than the country fairly resounds with their cries and drumming. * * * Noisy, rollicking fellows, they are always chasing one another among the trees, screaming meanwhile at the top of their voices, and when three or four vociferous males alight on the same tree, as often happens, their boisterous cries are truly astonishing.”

William Brewster (1876a) mentions a “peculiar snarling cry” used as an alarm note, and of a pair at the nest he says:

Watching once a nest for an hour or two, I remarked that
the birds relieved each other in the labors of incubation
at intervals averaging about half an hour each. The one
that had been absent would alight just below the hole, and,
uttering a low _yew-ick, yew-ick_, its mate would appear
from within, when, after the interchange of a few notes of
endearment, the sitting bird would fly off and the other
instantly enter the hole. * * *

Both young and old utter most frequently a low snarling cry
that bears no very distant resemblance to the _mew_ of the
Catbird. The adults have also two other notes--one, already
spoken of, when the opposite sexes meet; the other a clear,
ringing _cleur_, repeated five or six times in succession,
and heard, I think, only in the spring.

Of the voice of the sapsucker, Bendire (1895) says: “Its ordinary call note is a whining ‘whäee,’ and it utters a number of other sounds, some of these resembling the calls of the Blue Jay, and others those of the Red-shouldered Hawk. During the mating season, when the sexes are chasing each other, a series of notes like ‘hoih-hoih,’ a number of times repeated, are frequently heard. Although generally disposed to be more or less noisy, while clinging to their food trees they are always silent as far as my observations go.”

The note mentioned above does resemble the cry of the blue jay somewhat in form, but the notes of the two birds need never be confused. The sapsucker’s may be as long as the blue jay’s, or the _caw_ of a crow; again it may be given as a very short syllable. The note commonly is not nearly so loud as the blue jay’s and the tone of voice is different; it is a complaining whine rather than a boisterous shout.

Another note, a minor note heard only when one is near the bird, is very like the explosive _hit_ of the red-breasted nuthatch--the little conversational note that the nuthatches use as they scramble over the bark, not the nasal _toot_.

The most remarkable of the sapsucker’s utterances, in that it does not resemble a bird note at all, is a single syllable sounded regularly over and over again--a low-toned _tuck_, like slow, sharp strokes on a nonresonant branch. This note might sometimes be mistaken for a chipmunk’s pluck, except that it lacks completely any ringing quality of tone.

_Field marks._--The colored plates in the illustrated books on ornithology lead one to expect to find the yellow-bellied sapsucker rather a brilliantly colored, conspicuous bird. However, when we meet it in the field, the colors, so bright and sharply outlined in the picture of the bird, are often dimmed by the shadows of limbs and leaves, and as the chief color is of a neutral tint, not unlike the bark of many trees, we may sometimes pass the bird by, unnoticed. Our first impression of the bird, when we catch a glimpse of it, is of a medium-sized woodpecker, dull old-gold in color, and almost without markings. A glass, however, brings out a thin line of white along the length of the closed wing, a red or reddish forehead and fore part of the crown, a black mark across the upper breast, and, if we look very carefully, a yellowish belly.

W. L. McAtee (1911) points out the black mark is characteristic of nearly all sapsuckers, and he links it up pretty successfully with a red forehead. For example, The red-breasted sapsucker lacks the black mark, but has a red head; the flicker, not a sapsucker, has a “black spot on breast, but top of head from bill is not red”; the pileated woodpecker “not a sapsucker. Entire lower parts black.” He continues: “All sapsuckers have yellow bellies, few other woodpeckers have; all sapsuckers have a conspicuous white patch on the upper part of the wing, as seen from the side when clinging to a tree; white wing patches in other woodpeckers are on the middle or lower part of the wings. The yellow-bellied sapsucker of transcontinental range is the only woodpecker having the front of the head (i. e., from bill to crown) red in combination with a black patch on the breast.”

_Fall._--Generally when we see the yellow-bellied sapsucker in autumn, during its slow journey toward the Southern States, it is alone. A single bird may settle for two or three days in our dooryard, if there be a tree there to its liking, perching well up in it and rarely moving away. Here it is inconspicuous: its brownish color matches the bark closely; it moves deliberately, as if to avoid notice; by hopping behind a branch it keeps out of sight most of the time; and commonly it is perfectly silent. On occasion it makes use of its whining cry, and if two birds meet they may utter the red-breasted-nuthatch note, but as a rule this woodpecker is one of the quietest of migrants.

If we watch a bird for a time, we see that it is picking at the bark, dislodging bits of it in searching for concealed food. It hops forward, backward, and around the limbs, moving easily, taking rather long, rapid hops, seeming careless of a fall. When investigating crevices and peering under flakes of bark it cranes its neck, turning its head from side to side. The neck then appears constricted, like a pileated woodpecker in miniature.

At other times it may drill holes--even the young birds of the year, which can have had little experience in this kind of work. They drill with a sideways stroke, to one side, then the other, then, perhaps, a stroke straight at the branch. In this manner, before very long, a small area is denuded of bark, the sideways strokes giving it an oval shape with the long axis parallel to the ground. However, at this season, mid-October, in the latitude of Boston, little sap rewards their efforts.

_Winter._--Sapsuckers spend the winter mainly in the Southern States, Central America, and on the islands south of North America, but there are a few records indicating that a bird rarely may remain nearly or quite as far north as the southern limit of the breeding range. For example, Fred. H. Kennard (1895) reports finding one in Brookline, Mass., on February 6, 1895. Collected, “he proved to be in fine, fat condition”; and Harriet A. Nye (1918) watched, in Fairfield Center, Maine, a bird throughout the winter of 1911, in which the temperature fell to 32° below zero. Apples formed a considerable part of this bird’s diet, although he often hunted over the branches and trunks of trees. He was last seen April 5 “as sprightly as ever.”

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--North and Central America and the West Indies, casual in Bermuda and Greenland.

_Breeding range._--This species breeds =north= to southeastern Alaska (probably Skagway); southern Mackenzie (Nahanni Mountain, Fort Providence, and Fort Resolution); northern Manitoba (Cochrane River and probably Fort Churchill); Ontario (Lac Seul and probably Moose Factory); Quebec (Montreal, Quebec City, Godbout, Ellis Bay, and probably Eskimo Point); and Newfoundland (Fox Island and Nicholsville). =East= to Newfoundland (Nicholsville, Deer Lake, and Harrys River); Nova Scotia (Sydney and Halifax); Maine (Bucksport and Livermore Falls); southeastern New Hampshire (Ossipee and Monadnock Mountain); western Massachusetts (Chesterfield); New Jersey (Midvale); and western Virginia (Sounding Knob, Cold Mountain, and White Top Mountain). =South= to southwestern Virginia (White Top Mountain); northwestern Indiana (Kouts); central Illinois (Peoria); eastern Missouri (St. Louis); Iowa (Keokuk, Grinnell, and Ogden); southeastern South Dakota (Sioux Falls and probably Vermillion); New Mexico (Pot Creek and Diamond Peak); Arizona (Buffalo Creek and Kaibab Plateau); and southern California (San Bernardino Mountains, San Jacinto Mountains, and Mount Pinos). =West= to California (Mount Pinos, Big Creek, Cisco, Carlotta, and Mount Shasta); western Oregon (Prospect, Elkton, Salem, and Tillamook); Washington (Tacoma and Seattle); British Columbia (Beaver Creek, Alta Lake, and Masset); and southeastern Alaska (Craig, Wrangell, and probably Skagway).

_Winter range._--The winter range extends =north= to southwestern British Columbia (Comox); northeastern Oregon (Haines); central Arizona (Oak Creek); southern New Mexico (Silver City); Kansas (Wichita, Topeka, and Bendena); Missouri (Lexington and Nelson); Illinois (Bernadotte and Mount Carmel); southern Indiana (Vincennes and probably Bloomington); southern Ohio (Hamilton and Hillsboro); northern Maryland (Hagerstown); southeastern Pennsylvania (Edge Hill); and southern New Jersey (Newfield). From this point the species is found in winter =south= along the Atlantic coast to southern Florida (Miami, Royal Palm Hammock, and Key West); the Bahama Islands (Nassau, Watling Island, and Great Inagua); and the northern Lesser Antilles (St. Croix). =South= to the Lesser Antilles (St. Croix); rarely Haiti (Gonave Island); and rarely Costa Rica (Coli Blanco and Punta Arenas). From this southwestern point the winter range extends northward along the western coast of Central America (including Baja California) to California; Oregon; rarely Washington; and southwestern British Columbia (probably Barkley Sound and Comox). In the eastern part of the country the species is found irregularly =north= to southern Wisconsin (Madison); southern Michigan (Ann Arbor and Detroit); southern Ontario (London and Lindsay); southern Vermont (Bennington); and central Maine (Fairfield and Dover).

The range as above outlined covers the entire species, which has been separated into four subspecies or geographic races. The typical form, known as the yellow-bellied sapsucker (_S. v. varius_), is found during the breeding season over all the northern parts of the range east of Alaska and south to Missouri and the mountains of western Virginia. In winter it is found south to Central America and the West Indies. The red-naped sapsucker (_S. v. nuchalis_) is found chiefly in the Rocky Mountain region from central British Columbia south (in winter) to Baja California and central Mexico. The northern red-breasted sapsucker (_S. v. ruber_) breeds from southeastern Alaska south through the mountains to western Oregon and in winter to central California. The southern red-breasted sapsucker (_S. v. daggetti_) is confined to the mountains of California and northern Baja California.

_Spring migration._--Early dates of spring arrival are: Quebec-- Montreal, March 25; Westmount, March 30. New Brunswick--Scotch Lake, April 12; St. John, April 22. Nova Scotia--Wolfville, April 30. Northern Michigan--Blaney, April 2; Sault Ste. Marie, April 10; Houghton, April 24. Minnesota--Elk River, March 26; Minneapolis, March 29. Nebraska--Omaha, April 14. South Dakota--Faulkton, April 15. North Dakota--Fargo, April 15. Manitoba--Aweme, March 31; Margaret, April 17. Saskatchewan--Indian Head, April 4. Colorado--Estes Park, April 27. Wyoming--Yellowstone Park, May 12. Montana--Columbia Falls, April 13. Alberta--Stony Plain, April 1; Edmonton, May 2. Mackenzie--Fort Simpson, May 11. Alaska--Chilkat River, April 12; Admiralty Island, April 17; Forrester Island, May 6.

_Fall migration._--Late dates of fall departure are: Alberta--Glenevis, September 24. Montana--Fortine, September 20; Kalispell, October 1. Wyoming--Yellowstone Park, October 2. Colorado--De Beque, October 1; Denver, October 8; Walden, October 16. Saskatchewan--Indian Head, September 25. Manitoba--Shoal Lake, September 30; Treesbank, October 14; Margaret, October 24. North Dakota--Rice Lake, October 1; Fargo, October 2. South Dakota--Yankton, October 5; Faulkton, October 20. Nebraska--Monroe Canyon, Sioux County, October 4. Minnesota--Elk River, October 15; Lanesboro, October 19. Northern Michigan--Blaney, October 1; Houghton, October 2; Sault Ste. Marie, October 22. Nova Scotia--Sable Island, October 9. New Brunswick--Scotch Lake, November 4. Quebec--Montreal, October 1; Quebec City, October 2.

_Casual records._--According to Reid (1884) several specimens of this species were taken in Bermuda during the period 1847-1850 when it bred in that area. He also noted it in 1875. A specimen was found dead at Julianshaab, Greenland, in July 1845; another was obtained in that general region about 1858; and an adult female was collected at Loup Bay, Labrador, on May 5, 1899.

_Egg dates._--Alberta: 19 records, May 20 to June 18; 10 records,
May 30 to June 11, indicating the height of the season.
California: 13 records, May 12 to June 21; 7 records, May 30 to
June 9.
Colorado: 19 records, May 27 to June 15; 10 records, June 4 to 12.
Illinois: 5 records, April 20 to June 3.
Nova Scotia: 14 records, May 28 to June 15; 7 records, June 5 to 10.
Oregon: 24 records, May 12 to June 12; 12 records, May 25 to June 2.

SPHYRAPICUS VARIUS NUCHALIS Baird

RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER

HABITS

The western race of the eastern yellow-bellied sapsucker occupies an extensive range in the general region of the Rocky Mountains, chiefly east of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges, from central British Columbia and Alberta to western Texas and Arizona.

Ridgway (1914) gives a full description of this form, which is worth quoting in view of his remarks as to its status; he describes it as--

Similar to _S. v. varius_, but with much less white on
back, this forming two definite but broken stripes,
converging posteriorly; nape always with more or less of
red, under parts less strongly tinged with yellow, and wing
and tail averaging decidedly longer; adult male with red
of throat more extended, both laterally and posteriorly,
covering malar region (except anterior portion), where
meeting white sub-auricular stripe; adult female with at
least lower half of throat red (sometimes whole throat red,
only the chin being white); young much darker above than
corresponding stage of _S. v. varius_, the pileum dark
sooty slate, white markings on back less brownish, and
under parts much less yellowish, the chest and foreneck
brownish gray or grayish brown (instead of buffy brown),
and usually less distinctly barred or lunulated with dusky.

On account of the conspicuous difference in coloration
of the young, definite difference in color pattern of
back, head, and neck in adults, and comparative rarity
of intermediate specimens (which are far less common,
relatively, than in the case of _Colaptes_), I believe that
it would be better to consider this form as specifically
distinct from _S. varius_. It is true that specimens do
occur that are intermediate between _S. nuchalis_ and _S.
varius_, as well as between the former and if _S. ruber_;
but they may be (and I believe they are) hybrids; certainly
there is no more reason for not considering them as such
than in the case of _Colaptes_; and if _S. nuchalis_ is to
be considered as merely a subspecies of _S. varius_ then,
most certainly, must _S. ruber_ also.

Mr. Ridgway (1877) says of its haunts:

Throughout the country between the Sierra Nevada and the
Rocky Mountains, the red-naped woodpecker is a common
species in suitable localities. Its favorite summer-haunts
are the groves of large aspens near the head of the upper
cañons, high up in the mountains, and for this reason we
found it more abundant in the Wahsatch and Uintah region
than elsewhere; indeed, but a single individual was
observed on the Sierra Nevada, and this one was obtained on
the eastern slope of the range, near Carson City. It was
very rare throughout western Nevada, but became abundant
as we approached the higher mountains in the eastern
portion of the State. Among the aspen groves in Parley’s
Park, as well as in similar places throughout that portion
of the country, it was by far the most abundant of the
Woodpeckers; and it seemed to be as strictly confined to
the aspens as _S. thyroideus_ was to the pines.

The Weydemeyers (1928) say that, in northwestern Montana, “it occurs most abundantly and typically in mixed broad-leaf and conifer associations along streams, where it nests regularly. It ranges less commonly into virgin forests of fir, larch, yellow pine, and hemlock (_Tsuga heterophylla_) in the valleys; and into arborvitae, lodgepole pine, and spruce woods of the foothills. Occasional birds are seen in alpine fir and spruce woods upward to the lower borders of the Hudsonian zone.”