A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2006 SAPSUCKER!

We were pulling out of the driveway about an hour ago and my wife said, "Woodpecker". I looked and it wasn't JUST a woodpecker , it was a YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER! These birds are here only in the Winter, and are known for drilling concentric parallel rings of holes around the trunks of trees and then returning a few days later to drink the sap and eat the insects that gather in the holes. The holes don't hurt the tree at all and actually appear to help the tree. Welp, here's his picture! I shot it through the car window so the quality is bad, but he'll be back and hopefully I can get some better pictures then.

Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker (Male)

He's a big birdy. I look forward to seeing more pictures of him. Keep up the good work with the pictures and info. I love reading it and looking at the pictures.

He's about the size of an American Robin.

I take you keep your trusty camera in the
car at alllllllll times...

Does he have a yellow belly??
Can't tell..
We have a bunch of woodpeckers here..
Love them..
The boys love to watch them...
peck at the trees' and make them sounds...

And they have fun tryin' to find where they are, cause sometimes you just can hear them, but don't see them..

I keep my Digital Camera in my shirt or front pants pocket all the time. When I go to sleep at night it is within arm's reach of me, cuz we had an owl get INTO our house one night about 25 years ago. When people see me in public they say, "Is that a Digital Camera in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?"

I don't know if their bellies are yellow. They have a faint watercolor-like wash of the palest yellow over all their feathers. Red-Bellied Woodpeckers DO have a red belly but it is hard to see and is rarely seen. I see about 50 Red-Bellied Woodpeckers a year and I've actually seen their red bellies about 5-10 times in my life.

I googled it and I think ours here
is a Downy Woodpecker???????

Very Likely. Downys are the MOST common of all the Woodpeckers. You probably have the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker in your area. You DO! But.....They are there in the Summer and not in Winter. As a matter of fact Sapsuckers nest in your area in spring and Summer. Here, in the Southeast, we only get them in Winter. They do NOT nest here.

You know, to be honest, they very well could be..
And when we lived up on the hill, we saw a ton of
birds, but I was always busy working.. knew the basics', chickadee's, cardinals, etc..

But here, I don't feed the birds by feeders, etc..
My mom does, and she has a bunch of birds..
***I can't afford the food, etc..*

But I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to have flowers that go to seed that the birds love.. and it is so much fun to watch...Sunflowers, Coneflowers, Black~Eyed~Susan's, etc.. they are all over them, nibbling up the goodies..
and THAT is fun to watch...
I'd love to plant quadriple of sunflowers that I
planted this summer..

I'd also like to plant the milet too..the purple kind..

~~~~~>Thornius, Do wood peckers eat any flower seeds?
I know they like bugs in trees???
But any flowers' info for them would be GREAT!!!!

Woodpeckers love suet, especially peanut flavored and yes I do Have Downys that take the occasional Black-oil sunflower seed from my feeder. Each spring I spread a cup or two of Sunflower seed over bare patches in my yard to sprout and grow to seed. Around July 4 I am crushed by stampedes of American Goldfinches in full breeding plummage eating the seeds out of the mature heads of my sunflowers.

No Sapsucker this afternoon, but he was awfully busy this morning. here are some pictures I took this afternoon of some holes he drilled this morning in the trunk of my Bradford Pear tree. You can also see some older holes from Sapsucker work that were drilled about two years ago.

New (and Old)Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker holes in a Bradford Pear


Fresh Sapaucker Holes

Do they always do it in a line like that?????

I have holes in some of mine...
but no lines, that I remember...

*lot's of ant holes too *

Are they related to woodpeckers at all

Weezie. Sapsuckers do tend to make evenly spaced parallel holes around the trunks and limbs of trees, especially maples and fruit trees.

Badkitti, Sapsuckers ARE Woodpeckers. I know of two species, the Red-Naped Sapsucker and the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker. Mostly it's The Yellow-Bellied variety. The Red-Naped is found in the Black Hills of our states of North Dakota and South Dakota, which in turn are in the north-central US, near the Canadian border. Also we, too, have Canada Geese and Mallard Ducks. They are VERY common throughout the US, often eating bread from our hands or even sitting on our laps letting us pet them.

Do they go after Pines?????

Possiblt pines. I have seen then in my Weeping willow trees and actually watched them make the hole in it. It took him about 15-30 seconds to make the hole.

My mother bought herself a really neat suet holder...

It's a log, with a hook and chain at the top,
hung length wise down..
and there's 4 holes drilled into it, in certain
spaced intervals, *I would say, depends on the size of the log, if you were to make your own.*
but an inch apart, one on one side, straight thru.. like made with a doorknob attachment on your drill, cuts a hole out the size of the neck of the doorknob...

And she buys suet logs, the same size at the place she bought it..
and stuffs the logs, straight thru the holes,
and then there is little perches in front of each hole on either side...

Such a neat idea...

I saw those at Walmart this summer, Weezie! I have my own logs and drills. I'd just need to buy the suet inserts.

oh if you were to make your own,
I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to see some pictures..
That would be really neat...

I sure hope they do no damage to our American Cranberry Bush . I read that if there are several concentric rings it can severely damage , and even kill , the branches . They have sure done a number on that bush , and they are still here . I see one at the cat's watering pan , right outside our bay window , every day . I don't recall having them work on our yard trees in the past , and we have been here 21 years.