It is making its first migration and traveling to a place it has never seen. The young bird in my back yard did not hatch in Iowa, where I live. Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers don’t nest here. They don’t spend the winter here, either. But in spring and fall, they have to fly over the center of the Midwest.
Oh, good. That’s why sometimes I get to see one!
The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker perched in my back yard and looked me over. It did not seem afraid. Its feathers were puffed out, though, so I knew the bird felt cold. This was yesterday, the first seriously frozen morning of the year. The sapsucker was fluffing up its feathers to increase their insulating power.
Babyhood of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
The bird I saw was a juvenile. It has a starry crown and flecks of red on its forehead. By next spring, it will be an adult and will have a solidly red forehead.
This bird hatched in a forest up north last spring, perhaps in Minnesota or Canada. It is migrating solo, instinctively finding its own way even though it has never been to the place it is going. It travels at night, probably navigating at least partly by the stars. We don’t entirely understand yet how it knows the way. During the day, it rests and feeds. It must have thought my back yard looked like a promising way station.
A kindness of trees
Like other woodpeckers, sapsuckers pry insects from under loose bark of trees. Dead or dying trees are great for this. Therefore we leave dead limbs on the trees and let dead trees stand wherever we can safely do so. Even as it dies, the tree does the kindness of providing insect food for birds. We want to be kind to the birds also, so we don’t take away their food without a darned good reason.
If a sapsucker finds a suet feeder in your yard, it may well feel lucky at such a big find. Suet resembles insects in its fat and calorie content. It can help a sapsucker resupply if it’s running low on the fuel it needs for migration. You might not see your visitor the following day. It has a long way to go and will probably have moved on already.
Next spring, the sapsucker might stop in your backyard again on its way north. By then it will know the way and can remember where it found such a great suet feeder. At that time it will also drink the sap rising in trees. Holes in a row across the trunk of an old juniper are signs that sapsuckers have been here. The sapsuckers drilled the holes and sipped the sweet liquid as it oozed into the tiny wells. Ah, that’s how they got their name! SAPSUCKER!
Adult Sapsuckers
Among adult Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, both males and females are purely red on the top of the head and the forehead. The “yellow” on the belly is not always noticeable. You can see it better in the photo of the juvenile at the top of this page. Adult males have a red throat, and females have white throats.
Six other woodpeckers
The other six woodpeckers in Iowa can be found year around. Sapsuckers are here only on migration. It is a lucky chance to see one. Like a gift from heaven, showing up just as winter is coming on.
The seven woodpeckers we regularly see in Iowa are:
Pileated Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-headed Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Range of the sapsucker
Below is a map of where the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker lives. The map was created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Click the map to see its origin, to hear the sounds this woodpecker makes, and to read more about the species.
I’m pretty sure I saw a lady sapsucker today, eating suet at the feeder. Didn’t know what kind of woodpecker she was until now. Thanks Diane!