The Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker is a woodpecker that winters in the southeastern US, Mexico and Central America. While mature woodpeckers have a red cap, the male also has a red throat. All mature Yellow-Bellieds have a yellow wash on the breast. When will my field glasses allow me to see through a tree? I've had the distinct drumming from a neighbor's locked garden, but can't see the Yellow Bellied on the other side of the tree!
Their drumming is distinct and sounds like Morse Code. They also will drum on metal including streets signs. The drilling stands out with neat horizontal rows that may need to be re-drilled or may form sap wells. They especially like high sap trees like birch and maple. If you're worried about your trees, think of the gallons of Maple Syrup humans drain from Maple trees. Sapsuckers actually capture insects in their small sap drills. How much can a 7 to 9 inch bird consume or peck?
You may hear them or see their drills before you see them. From the back they are well camouflaged on a tree, so that movement or sound may be your only clue.
Females don't often drum, so you may not hear her; but by mentally removing the red speckles on the throat of the image above, you can visualize what a mature female looks like. You readily can see how the short-tail provides balance and leverage to peck on a tree. Special plates in the skull, keep their brains safe from concussions.
The Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker is a medium-sized (7-9 inches) woodpecker. They will migrate north in the later spring. They mostly nest in the pine and hardwoods of Eastern Canada so from Texas we don't have any picture of fledges, which are very brownish with no white. The yellow-wash on the breast is just beginning to color in the image above.
Other Fort Bend Woodpeckers already featured in this blog to date are
Red-Bellied, and
Start getting your Hummingbird feeders ready. It will only take a nice northernly wind from Mexico and Central America to start neotropical migration of hummers to the Gulf Coast. Winter hummers are present on feeders already.
Talk on Hummingbirds
Sugar Land Garden Club, March 17, 2015 at 9:30 AM.
Janice Scanlan will show Margaret Sloan's fabulous pictures of Hummingbirds from Fort Bend, Central and South America as well as show garden plants that attract them in our area. Many practical tips about bringing and keeping Hummingbirds coming back to your garden. Janice's talks are laced with humor and memorable stories that illustrate.
Talk is free to the public. For more details, visit Sugar Land Garden Club website meetings page.
Janice Scanlan writes, researches and edits this blog as well as writes a monthly feature in Fort Bend Independent featuring Margaret's pictures of local birds.
Photos copyrighted by international birder Margaret Sloan. View her international and national bird pictures by pressing this link.
See a bird you don't recognize in Fort Bend? Margaret has photographed 150+ bird species just in her suburban Fort Bend,Texas backyard alone. Narrow your initial search by viewing her full photo album of local birds, Birds of Quail Valley by pressing this link. They are organized by types of birds, so if it's a water bird for example, you may find one that helps you narrow your search. Then if you "google in" the name of the bird, you'll get info and all kinds of information and images. Sometimes if a species is remarkably different from adult you may find nothing, contact us and we'll do our best to help.
Looking for the right feeder for your birds?
Cornell's Project Feeder Watch has a site with over 100 common birds and feeders that attract them. Press this link.