My eyes follow up the trunk of a maple until it splits into a Y. A flash of black and white wings appears in front of me. It descends upon the oily black plumage of a startled starling, an interloper on the male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker’s territory. The intruder flees, and the sapsucker returns to his roost with his crown of scarlet raised triumphantly. I glance back to the trunk and notice a line of shallow holes drilled neatly into the rough bark. Then I notice another ring of wells and another. To my surprise, the entire tree has been bombarded by sapsuckers!

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) is a medium-sized woodpecker species, weighing in at 1.8 ounces with an impressive 16-inch wingspan. The back and head feature black and white striping, while the breast features a tint of yellow as well as black and white patterning, reminiscent of diorite. The male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker boasts a bright red crown and throat, while the female has only a red crest. Juvenile sapsuckers lack red patterning and tend to feature more brown throughout compared to their mature counterparts.

They can be found in a multitude of environments across North America, wintering in the southeastern United States, the Caribbean Islands, and almost the entirety of Middle America. Sapsuckers migrate north to breed in the northeastern regions of the United States and nearly the whole of Canada. While sapsuckers are only found breeding in the northern regions of Michigan, birders in the southern part of the state may spot them drilling sap wells during migration stops.

Sapsuckers are noted for their unusual and clever method of food-gathering. They will claim a tree (usually maple or birch) as a food source and defend it ruthlessly. Upon declaring a tree as their own, a sapsucker will set to work drilling numerous wells around the circumference of the tree. The tree begins to leak sap, which the sapsucker laps up continuously (in addition to any insects that may become suspended in the sap).

Sapsuckers often nest in the same tree where they forage their food, drilling a cavity up to 10 inches deep in which they lay 4–6 eggs a year. Sapsuckers fledge within 30 days of egg-laying. The same nest cavity may be reused for up to seven years by the same sapsucker couple.

~ by Brant Georgia, Michigan Young Birders Network

Brant Georgia is a wildlife artist based in Monroe, Mich. You can view more of his work in the future at brantgeo.com.

The Michigan Young Birders Network, a program of Michigan Audubon, aims to connect young birders (13–18 years old) and offer a space for them to share their enthusiasm for the avian world.

All drawings by Brant Georgia.

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