Although (click here) its name sounds like a cartoonist's invention, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker does exist. This species is common in the north and east, and is replaced by close relatives in the west. Quiet in winter, it becomes noisy in spring, with cat-like calls and staccato drumming.
Drills tiny holes in tree bark, usually in neatly spaced rows, and then returns to them periodically to feed on the sap that oozes out. Also eats bits of cambium (cambium is the growth ring on the outer most layer of the tree, it is covered with the tree bark.) and other tree tissues, as well as insects that are attracted to the sap. Besides drilling sap wells, also gleans insects from tree trunks in more typical woodpecker fashion, and sallies out to catch insects in the air. Berries and fruits are eaten at all seasons, and birds may concentrate in fruiting wild trees in winter.
Diet Includes insects, tree sap, fruit. Feeds on a wide variety of insects, including many ants (taken from tree trunks). Also regularly feeds on tree sap, and on berries and fruits.
Common Name: Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Scientific Name: See title to entry - thank you
Type: Aves
Group Name/Family: Picidae
Average Life Span: 7.8 years
Size: 8.5 inches in length and a 16 inch wing span
Weight: 1.8 ounces
...sapsucker feeding (50 or more holes in a band or patch) (click here) can lower wood quality, reduce growth, and even kill birch trees. Besides discoloration and decay, their feeding injuries cause a localized ring shake. Sapsuckers kill trees and cause top dying by girdling the main stem within and just beneath the live crown. Sapsuckers frequently return to feed on favorite trees in successive breeding seasons until the trees are killed.
These birds feed on trees of all sizes, but most heavily on large saw-log and polesize trees. They prefer feeding on healthy dominant and codominant trees that have been excessively exposed by heavy thinning, or growing along roads, rightof-ways, and openings. Even in unmanaged stands, they select the largest paper and yellow birches as favorite feeding trees. Sapsuckers are also attracted to old sapsucker wounds and other types of injuries.
Sapsuckers are protected by State and Federal laws and probably could not be controlled by shooting or poisoning because other birds would soon fill vacant territories.
Let me explain that a little bit. I think the idea of poisoning anything in nature is a bad idea. It would effect other creatures as well as people that happen to be hiking. But, the idea of shooting ANY nuisance animal, especially birds, is just a bad idea. The best example is the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon over 110 years ago (click here). A more recent phenomenon is the reckless and endless killing of blackbirds as a sport. A single hunter will take 50 or more birds in a day. That is the type of killing that never ends and causes extinction. That is why most states prohibit such acts of control of what some might label as a nuisance. It is far better to maintain an annual count and determine if they are overpopulating any forest. Annual bird counts are conducted by the Audobon Society.
...These birds are not considered threatened or endangered, (click here) but they are occasionally persecuted because of a belief that their wells may damage trees. While it is true that a heavily drilled tree may suffer, this is rare and not usually a cause for concern. In many areas, populations yellow-bellied sapsuckers are expanding because of increasing second growth forest with favored tree types....
