Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

IDENTIFICATION: This woodpecker has a striking black and white back and head pattern, and a red cap throat. It has yellow undersides, and a prominent white stripe on the wing. The female lacks the red throat. Length: 21-22 cm.; weight: 43-55 g.

VOICE: The call is an un-woodpecker-like, nasal "nyah" note. Audio (M. Oberle).

HABITAT: Forests, open woodlands and palm groves.

HABITS: The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker drills several parallel lines of holes around a tree trunk and keeps them open over time to encourage the flow of sap. In addition to sap, it will eat insects attracted to the sap wells. It also eats berries, and drills in wood for beetle larvae and ants. Other bird species are attracted to the insects at sap wells. The Sapsucker occasionally catches insects on the wing. It breeds in northern North America, where it excavates a nest in a live tree, and typically lays five eggs.

STATUS AND CONSERVATION: This bird is common on its breeding grounds, but a rare winter visitor to Puerto Rico, e.g. Maricao State Forest, 19 February 2001 and 18 Feb. 2002. One individual Sapsucker (photo above) has been documented to return to the same sap wells for several years near Los Picachos, El Yunque.

RANGE: Breeds from southeastern Alaska and southwestern Canada, east to Labrador, New England, and the southern Appalachian Mountains. It winters from southeastern North America and northwestern Mexico, south to Panamá. In the West Indies it is commoner farther west than Puerto Rico.

TAXONOMY: PICIDAE; Picinae.


Adult female - Photo: G. Beaton


Adult male - Photo: G. Beaton

References

Arendt, W.J. 1992. Status of North American migrant landbirds in the Caribbean region: a summary. Pp. 143-171 in Ecology and conservation of neotropical migrant landbirds (J.M. Hagan III and D.W. Johnston, eds.) Smithsonian Instit. Press, Washington, D.C.

Bent, A.C. 1939. Life histories of North American woodpeckers. Smithsonian Instit. U.S. National Museum Bull. 174 (Reprinted by Dover Press, NY, 1964).

del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott, and J. Sargatal, eds. 2002. Handbook of Birds of the World, Vol. 7. Jacamars to woodpeckers. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Princeton.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. Una guía a las aves de Puerto Rico y las Islas Vírgenes. Publishing Resources, Inc., Santurce, PR.

Raffaele, H.A., J.W. Wiley, O.H. Garrido, A.R. Keith, and J.I. Raffaele. 1998. Guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton.

Walter, E. L., E. H. Miller, and P. E. Lowther. 2002. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius). In The Birds of North America, No. 662 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.

Winkler H., D.A. Christie, and D. Nurney. 1995. Woodpeckers: a guide to the woodpeckers of the World. Houghton Mifflin, NY.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Spanish text

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