The fascinating life of the yellow-bellied sapsucker

 

A male yellow-bellied sapsucker tends a well field

Columbus Dispatch

December 20, 2025

NATURE

Jim McCormac

“And you tell him if he don’t show up himself, he ain’t nothing but a yellow-bellied sapsucking coward.”–Denzel Washington as Sam Chisolm in the 2016 remake of "The Magnificent Seven"

Arguably our coolest woodpecker, the yellow-bellied sapsucker has provided plenty of fodder for insults and jokes. Yes, there really is such a bird, and in my opinion, it is the most interesting of the seven common Ohio woodpeckers.

Unlike the other six woodpecker species which commonly nest in the state, the yellow-bellied sapsucker occurs mostly as a migrant and winter resident. It’s a northern species, breeding across the northern boreal forest, from Alaska to Newfoundland. Nearly all Ohio nesting records come from the extreme northeastern corner of the state, which represents the southern edge of the nesting range.

Sapsuckers are normally mostly non-vocal outside of the breeding season, but occasionally deliver their loud cat-like call, which sounds a bit like a feline with its tail caught in a vise. That will draw a birder’s attention to the bird, which otherwise can easily be missed.

Woodpeckers “sing” by drumming rhythms distinctive to their species. The sapsucker’s “song” is an erratic series of taps that sounds like something a drunken Morse code operator would produce. One hears this frequently on the breeding grounds, but sometimes sapsuckers heading north in spring will deliver their peculiar pounding patter.

One reason that sapsuckers can easily be missed is that they spend much time creating and maintaining complex “well fields” on tree trunks. While so engaged, a sapsucker quietly works with the horizontally arranged rows of neat holes in the trunk that it has created. The holes, which might number into the dozens in a single well field, ooze sap. And tree sap is a coveted food for the sapsucker, and the reason for the bird’s curious name.

Sapsuckers will “frack” hundreds of different tree species, in which they construct two types of well fields. In spring, when sap flows upward through the xylem tissue in the bark, the individual wells are small and round. After leaf-out, their sap-mining is concentrated on the phloem tissue layer, in which sap flows downward. These holes are larger and rectangular. The male sapsucker in the accompanying photo is working a phloem well field.

In warmer weather, insects galore are drawn to the sugary sap, and these bugs are eagerly scarfed down by the feathered engineers. For a sapsucker, the perfect food is a gooey ball of sap with bugs rolled into it, an insectivorous nougat for birds.

It isn’t just sapsuckers that benefit from their sap wells. Ruby-throated hummingbirds visit frequently to lap up sap, which can be up to 10% sugar. Evidence suggests that hummingbirds may sync their movements to stay in proximity to sapsuckers, and even nest near active well fields. Long before the first manmade hummingbird feeder was created, yellow-bellied sapsuckers were feeding hummingbirds.

I have spent much time in northern Michigan, where sapsuckers can be the most common breeding woodpecker species. A favored nesting tree is quaking aspen, especially those afflicted with a heartwood decay fungus called Phellinus tremulae. The fungus weakens the inner wood, making it easier for the sapsuckers to excavate their dwelling. The hardworking male sapsucker does nearly all the excavation. By all appearances, the female supervises his work, flying in periodically to inspect progress, while the male looks from the hole and receives instructions from his better half.

Once construction is complete, the female lays four to five eggs, which are brooded by both sexes. About two weeks later, the sapsucker-lets hatch. After the nest is vacated, they are often appropriated by flying squirrels or other cavity-nesting species unable to create their own dwellings.

Sapsuckers begin to move south into Ohio in late September and can be fairly common in October. Many remain throughout winter and become more common southward in the state. The longest distance migrant of our woodpeckers, sapsuckers range south through Central America nearly to South America, and throughout the Caribbean countries. I have seen them multiple times in the jungles of Costa Rica and Guatemala. That was rather a shock the first time, seeing this woodpecker of the northern forests in proximity with manakins, motmots and toucans.

A great local place for migratory and wintering yellow-bellied sapsuckers is Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus’s south side. The cemetery, Ohio’s second largest, covers 360 acres and is a true birding hotspot. Wandering between the central pond (‘the pit”) and the old bridge and ravine to its west can be especially productive for sapsucker-seekers.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first and third Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

A pair of sapsuckers, male below, female above