Mediocre Photos of a Truly Stunning Bird: Red-breasted Sapsuckers

With a name that sounds like an insult and the habit of repeatedly beating its head against tree trunks, the non-birder might not expect much of the Red-breasted Sapsucker.  The uninitiated might not even believe you when you try to convince them that "sapsucker" is, in fact, the name of a real bird!


The sapsuckers of North America (there are three more species in addition to the Red-breasted: the Yellow-bellied, Red-naped and Williamson's Sapsuckers) are closely related to woodpeckers and flickers, all of which are members of the woodpecker family, Picidae.  North America's diverse forests are home to 22 extant species of woodpecker, including the four sapsuckers.  (Sadly, a twenty-third species, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker of the South's old growth swamps was last seen with certainty in the 1940's and is most likely extinct.)


Woodpeckers are a super cool group of birds, uniquely adapted with some really incredible anatomical features that allow them to take advantage of almost any habitat across North America, from boreal forests in the north, to saguaro forests in the desert southwest, to extensive Eastern hardwood forests.  While Nuttall's Woodpeckers are essentially California endemics, and Acorn Woodpeckers are Western specialties, many species, like Downy Woodpeckers and Northern Flickers, frequent urban and suburban parks and gardens across the continent; in North America, there is a woodpecker for everyone!

Woodpeckers have three noteworthy anatomical adaptations in common: stiff tails which are used as props while the birds perch and drill on vertical surfaces; specialized bills and skulls designed to withstand the repeated impact of drilling into hard wood; and absurdly long tongues, which actually wrap around the back of the skull for "storage" when retracted, which are designed to access tasty tidbits extracted from bark crevasses.  While the tongues of other woodpeckers are tipped with barbs, those of the sapsuckers end in brush-like structures designed to draw up sap by capillary action.

Notice the sapsucker's stiff prop-like tail, which acts as a support for the bird as it hammers away while perched vertically on the tree trunk.  From this angle, you can really see how the supporting tail is vital as the bird leans back to take another whack at the trunk!


Breeding in the coniferous forests of the Sierra Nevada and Pacific Northwest, Red-breasted Sapsuckers move into the Central Valley during the winter months.  The photos above were taken in town, where Red-breasted Sapsuckers hang out in Deodar Cedars and other ornamental trees; the photo below was taken during the summer, high in the Sierra Nevada along a riparian area.  Nest cavities are excavated by sapsuckers most commonly in deciduous trees, such as aspens, alders, willows and cottonwoods.  They don't appear to reuse nest cavities, but these high-value pieces of real estate are prized by secondary cavity-nesting birds, like small owls, as well as small mammals.

Red-breasted Sapsucker in breeding habitat; notice the little wells on the small willow branches.

Sapsuckers, true to their name, feed on tree sap, leaving tell-tale signs behind as they drill rows of neatly spaced holes, or sap wells, in trunks and large branches.  Like the nest cavities that Red-breasted Sapsuckers make available to other species, a number of animals benefit from their wells also.  Hummingbirds and warblers, among others, are often seen feeding on the sap oozing from sapsucker wells.

A Red-breasted Sapsucker working on a series of sap wells in a non-native Deodar Cedar.


If you come across a tree dotted with sap wells like the one in the photo below, especially if the wells are oozing fresh sap, stop and spend a few minutes looking for a sapsucker!


Recommended book: Peterson's Reference Guide to Woodpeckers of North America

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