Friday, December 28, 2007

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

© Donna L. Watkins - Juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Although the flowers are gone and the trees are bare, the positive side to all of this is that you can certainly view the birds more easily without all the foilage they normally hide in.

Our woodpeckers are a delight. I enjoy their sounds as they arrive and depart from our suet feeders (and grab a few black oil sunflower seeds for dessert).

I don't often get to see the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. The tapping is not as bold as our other woodpeckers and they have different food preferences since they like sap (hence the name :-)

Read detailed information on this bird with awesome close-up photos of this beautiful woodpecker at the Hilton Pond Center site. He calls them sap-lappers since they lap rather than suck the sap.

Update:
Four days after this was posted, I took this photo of a woodpecker on the holly tree outside the dining room window. I thought it was a hairy woodpecker from the size and beak and didn't give it further thought until my neighbor mentioned the odd coloring. Checked the bird book and it's a juvenile yellow-bellied. They are here in Virginia this time of year and there are juveniles through March. To confirm I checked the tree for the pattern of holes they drill for sap.

No comments:

Share This Post