Posted by ppeery on October 9th, 2009

The sapsucker nests predominantly in  Canada, but also south of the Great Lakes and in New England south along the Appalachians to West Virginia.  In the winter it is common in Virginia and the Southeast where it drills its characteristic ring of holes around the trunks and larger branches of trees.  These holes do not ordinarily damage the tree but I have seen non-native trees such as the Japanese Snowbell and Japanese Black Pine damaged.  The sapsucker has a substance in its saliva that keeps the sap of the tree from coagulating so that it (and other birds) can return again and again for a meal.  The sapsucker has a very distinctive call.  Once you learn it, you will hear it in our woods in the fall, winter and spring. 

Click here (Yellow Bellied Sapsucker Song) to  hear the call of the sapsucker.

For more information about the Yellow Bellied Sapsucker and other birds a great place to visit is The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology which has a wonderful on-line information about birds.  Their site “All About Birds” is the easiest to use.

Dorothy Tompkins - Master Naturalist and Bundoran Farm Steward

Filed under: Education and Inspiration, General, Nature/Environment