Yellow Bellied Sapsucker

Range and Habitat:
The yellow bellied sapsucker summer breeding range extends from central Canada to Newfoundland, south to British Columbia, North Dakota, Missouri, and central New England, and the mountains to North Carolina. From late March through September, they can be seen in new forests from southeastern Alaska over Canada and the northeastern United States with smaller, more localized breeding populations living in the Appalachians as far south as Tennessee. In winter months, the yellow bellied sapsucker migrates, leaving their summer range. In the fall all Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers migrate to the southeastern United States, Mexico, Central America, or the West Indies for the winter. The species has happened as a very rare occurrence in Ireland and Great Britain.

Their habitat is most often new, open deciduous or mixed woodlands with clearings and while on migration, they visit parks, yards, and urban gardens. The yellow-bellied sapsucker is most abundant along streams in mixed hardwood conifer woodlands. They are also found in ponderosa pine, aspen, mixed coniferous trees, lodgepole pine, and in mixed stands of fir-larch-pine.

Food:
Like other sapsuckers, this birds bore holes in trees and eat sap and insects. They may also cull insects from tree trunks or capture them in flight. They eat fruit and berries in addition to insects and sap. Sapsuckers are discriminating in using particular trees over others, and they commit a lot of time in managing trees for both current and later use. They are known to eat off as many as 1,000 various species of trees, though they show a predilection for particular species within a given area. Birches, sugar maples, and scotch pines are a a couple of primary favorites. They frequently will choose single trees that are injured or weakened, such as from insects, disease, lightning or wind. The cause for this may be that the the sap of trees in poor health has higher degrees of amino acids and protein.

At Your Bird Feeders

Yellow-bellied sapsuckers feed fruit and insects as well as sap. They can sometimes be enticed to backyard bird feeder stations which provide suet or fruit bird foods.

Nesting:
Their breeding habitat is wooded areas across Canada, eastern Alaska and the northeastern United States. They favor young, principally deciduous forests. There is also an isolated population found in high elevations of the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. They nest in a large cavity hollowed in a deciduous tree, often choosing one weakened by disease with the same location potentially be used for several years. t takes one to four weeks of excavating to build a nest site, which is lined with sawdust and wood chips. One egg per day is laid until there are between 2 and 7 eggs. Most often this birds will mate with the same partner year after year as long as both birds live. They occasionally crossbreed with Red-naped Sapsuckers or Red-breasted Sapsuckers where their breeding ranges overlap. Nesting consists of 5 or 6 white eggs in a tree cavity hollowed by the birds. The male sapsucker picks out the breeding territory, selects the nest site, and does the majority of the nest cavity excavation, they also assist equally in the incubation of the growing eggs and nestlings and manage most of the nest cleanup. They also do a large amount of feeding the young. Male sapsuckers are more apt to succeed at single parenting. If one parent dies when young are in the nest, the babies are more probable to survive to fledgling if raised by the male.

After two weeks of incubation, the baby woodpeckers hatch and almost at once begin their constant, raucous vocalizations that can be heard 100 yards or further. The harried parents quench the nestling’s insatiable hunger with insects dipped in sap. Three to four long weeks later, the young are physically prepared to depart the nest, however they are sometimes loath to do so. In such circumstances , parent sapsuckers have been seen luring the young fledglings by dangling food just out of their reach. House and box height placement from ground in feet: 10-20.

Pretty Pictures

This photo of a male and female yellow bellied sapsucker is from mon@rch nature blog. Please visit him at his blog and also his flickr photography gallery for some absolutely beautiful nature photos. His photography of yellow bellied sapsuckers, which includes the larger version of the photo we show, is located in his blog post Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers in Allegany State Park. There are several more (dare we say again, beautiful??) shots of these birds there which are far better than the single sample we have displayed.

Red Bellied Woodpeckers are great backyard guests and a happy sight for the wild bird watcher. They will easily visit bird feeding stations and garden habitats. A red bellied woodpecker will frequent a yard for suet as well as black oil sunflower seed, and seem to be able to manage to access a wide variety of bird feeder designs.

Range and Habitat:
The red-bellied woodpecker may be found in nearly all of the eastern United States, with the exception of for northern New England. Birds in the northern most part of the range might migrate in the wintertime. The red-bellied woodpecker can be found in exposed and swampy forests. Red-bellied Woodpecker is found in open and swampy woodlands. It prefers forests, swamps or wooded suburban habitats below 600 meters elevation, but can be found at up to 900 meters in mountains. In the winter, birds in the northern most areas of their range may move south. Their breeding habitat is commonly deciduous forests in southern Canada and the northeastern United States, although they may roam as far south as Florida and as far west as Texas.

Food:
The red-bellied woodpecker consumes beetles, flies, grasshoppers,caterpillars, ants, beetle larvae and other insects. It also eats acorns, tree sap, beechnuts and fruits.They can also consume frogs, fish, nestlings and eggs. It applies its bill to dig for insects in trees and stumps. The red-bellied woodpecker occasionally stores food in a tree cavity. In the winter, the red-bellied woodpecker’s diet consists primarily of seeds and it can often be seen frequently at backyard bird feeders.

Attracting to Backyard Bird Feeders

Red bellied woodpeckers are common guests to backyard bird feeding stations. In our yard we have seen them most frequently on our double tail prop suet feeder, including having the male on one side and the female on the other:

Tail Prop Suet Feeder

This is only one style of suet feeder, there are may you can shop for at Wild Bird Suet Feeders. The red bellied wood[ecker’s preference in suet flavors has been peanut and peanut butter suet, but we have also watched them eat a lot of berry and fruit flavored suets.

In our backyard, their second favorite bird feeder is an open platform tray with black oil sunflower seeds. Now, we have our platform tray feeder mounted on a pole and not hanging. It is the same feeder shown below and we absolutely can’t say enough good about it. It’s made from recycled plastic, cleans very easily and the mesh is small enough to handle millet. This style feeder is highly visible to birds and goes a long way to attract new birds species to a yard.

Recycled Plastic Tray Feeder

A note on this feeder: ours is mounted on a pole. We used a threaded pipe flange and mounted it on a threaded pipe we purchased in the plumbing department of a hardware store. The recycled feeder itself has a bar on the underside which is not visible in the picture - it’s covered with seed - however, you can use this bar to screw a flange in for pole mounting. BUT! The manufacturer of this wonderful feeder offers a Manufacturer’s Lifetime Guarantee for good reason. These feeders last! However, due to the fact that it is designed as a hanging feeder we likely gave up our Manufacturer’s Lifetime Guarantee by drilling extra holes in it. So don’t take our advice on this one. Ours is used as a pole mounted platform feeder set aside from our smaller songbird feeders in order to give jays, doves, grackle invasions, etc a separate feeding area. We needed it to be solid due to the application and it can get pretty loaded with birds! We’re extremely happy with it our way but it’s a wonderful hanging feeder as it was made to be, and red bellied woodpeckers can land on it easily when it is mounted by hanging.

There is a similar wooden tray feeder available which is made to post mount:

Wooden Tray Hang or Post Mount Feeder

Shop for a wider assortment of platform feeders here: Platform Bird Feeders

Back to red bellied woodpeckers. They also like our shelled peanut feeder hand make us laugh since they don’t cling to the side mesh but instead cling to the tray, It all looks rather awkward but the woodpeckers seem quite happy. The titmice aren’t so pleased when their peanut feeder tilts with the weight of the woodpecker!

Mesh Peanut Feeder with Tray

Nesting:
Both parents select the nest site and excavate the cavity. Nest are hollowed in dead trees or branches with the cavity lined with wood chips. They nest in the decomposed cavities of dead and dying trees, old stumps, or in live trees that have soft wood such as elms, maples, or willows. Female lays 3 to 8 smooth and glossy white eggs. Incubation lasts approximately 12 to 14 days, Young are fed by both parents and begin to fledge at about 24 to 27 days old. They remain close to the nest for few days more, and then they follow their parents foraging. They are fed by their parents for up to 10 weeks. At the end of this period, parent birds will drive them away. Young may breed the next spring. This species may occasionally produce two clutches per season, but generally they raise a single brood. House and box height placement from ground in feet: 12-20.

Red Bellied Woodpecker House

Any tips or advice?
We’ve decided to try comments and hope the spam does not kill us…so…Please let us know if you have red-bellied visitors in your personal habitat. Leave a comment and give other visitors who may be trying to attract these wonderful birds a tip. Tell us what they eat, and if you have had any nesting experience, we’d very much love to hear about it!

The beautiful pileated woodpecker is one of a backyard bird watchers most sought after birds. Often we can hear their loud calls over a distance but not catch sight of these large birds.

They will come to bird feeders and they will nest in man made bird houses, but a backyard birdwatcher is lucky to have either happen in their garden. We have a family of these birds this season and while their presence is visible, they have not yet visited our feeders. They do love our dogwood tress! There is far too much natural food available to them. However, others further north have had great luck with pileated woodpeckers visiting their suet feeders. As well, a local birder here in the deep south, has had a pileated woodpecker nest in one of his boxes this summer. We’re pretty darn envious of him right about now! The pileated woodpecker nesting on his property is in an owl box which has been stuffed with wood chips.

Range and Habitat:
The pileated woodpecker dwells in evergreen and deciduous forests. This species needs late phases of woodland for habitat, as well as newer forests with spread, large, dead trees for food, nesting, and roosting. In newer forests they need larger areas: 3,904 acres of virgin woodland provides for 3-6 pairs of Pileated Woodpeckers, whilst the equal area of secondary woodland will support only one pair. They also require bigger trees with dead centers for roosting, where the bird excavates only the entrance way hole. Any timberland type, broad-leafed, coniferous, or mixed, may support Pileated Woodpeckers so long as there are trees big enough for roosting and nesting. Pileated Woodpeckers are frequently linked to mature and old-growth forests but may breed in newer forests if they include large trees.

Food:
The pileated woodpecker consumes primarily carpenter ants and wood-boring beetle larvae, fruits, and nuts. . Pileated Woodpeckers eat wood-boring insects and insects which live in trees, including long-horned beetles and particularly carpenter ants. With the primary part of their diet comprised of carpenter ants and beetle larvae, the pileated woodpecker applies its sharp bill to extract bark off a tree to uncover ant colonies. It employs its long, sticky tongue to prod into holes and dredge out the ants. It also excavates large rectangular hollows in trees to produce roosting and nesting spots along with exposing insects. Studies of diet describe it as being consisting of more than half animal matter, chiefly Carpenter Ants. Additionally, Thatching Ants, beetles, additional insects, and vegetable matter comprise about one quarter of the total.

At Bird Feeding Stations

A pileated woodpecker has a very large territory, so if you have seen one in your area and then it disappears, do not worry as it may just be in a different area of it’s territory. They can be attracted to bird feeding stations primarily with suet feeders and suet bird foods. A larger feeder to accommodate their size is preferable, however they can land on smaller cages amazingly enough. Friends who have had good luck attracting these birds tell us that their suet flavor preference is peanut butter or peanut suet. They will also eat seed from a platform bird feeder, and it has been reported that black oil sunflower is the seed of choice.

This feeder has been specially designed for pileated woodpeckers and to accommodate their large size:

Pileated Tail Prop Feeder

It holds four cakes which is great if you live in winter climates and suet feeders see a lot of activity! It makes filling feeders less frequent. You don’t have to use four cakes at one time, but during winter when the suet will not go bad, it’s a fantastic idea.

For those of us that live in southern climates where a smaller suet feeder, or less food out at one time due to the danger of it going bad, we would recommend a smaller feeder with less suet. You can shop for suet feeders at Suet Bird Feeders.

Nesting:
Long term monogamous couples remain together on territories year round. Both members of the pair hollow a new nest cavity in a deadened tree or branch each year located 15 to 125 feet above the ground. The egg-shaped entrance is taller than wide, approximately 4-6 inches in diameter. The cavities measure between 10 and 24 inches deep, and the birds build a new one each year. and The excavation may take the pair up to six weeks to finish. The nest is lined exclusively with wood chips from the excavation. Both sexes commonly incubate the 3 to 5 eggs for approximately 18 days and brood the offspring for the first 7 to 10 days after they hatch. The clutch varies in size from 1 to 6 eggs, with an average of 3.8 eggs per clutch. Parents share in raising young, with both regurgitating food for the babies. The young leave the nest after 24 to 28 days but could stay with the parents for an additional 2 to 3 months while they learn to forage. House and box height placement from ground in feet: 15-125.

Tips or Advice?

If you have pileated woodpeckers visit your backyard, please leave a comment and give a tip to the next person! Let us know what the birds eat and what type of feeder they feed from. We appreciate the advice! If they have ever nested on your property, give us details! We’d love to know how to better accommodate these wonderful birds.

Lewis Woodpecker

Range and Habitat:
Crucial habitat characteristics include an open tree canopy, a brushy under story with ground cover, deadened trees for nest cavities, dead or fallen woody debris, perch sites, and ample insects. Lewis’ Woodpeckers use open ponderosa pine forests, clear riparian woodlands of primarily cottonwood, and logged or burned pine. They also use oak timberlands, orchards, pinyon-juniper forests along with other open coniferous forests, and agricultural lands. The species appears to prefer open ponderosa pine at high elevations and open riparian forests at lower elevations. They have also demonstrated a preference for open stands near water. Since the species captures insects from the air, perches close to gaps or in open canopy are important for foraging habitat.

Lewis’ Woodpeckers often use burned off pine forests, although suitability of post-fire habitats changes with the age, size, and level of the burn, concentration of remaining snags, and the geographic area. Birds may relocate to unburned stands once the young are fledged. They have been in general thought of as species of aged burns instead than new ones, moving in many years after a fire and dead trees begin to fall and brush grows, five to thirty years later than the fire occurred. For instance, in Wyoming, the species was more common in a seven-year-old burn than in a twenty-year-old burn. Overall, desirable circumstances include an open canopy, availability of nest cavities and perches, abundant arthropod prey, and a shrubby understory. Even so on a two- to four-year-old burn in Idaho they constituted the most predominant cavity nester and happened in the highest nesting concentrations ever registered for the species. As habitat suitableness decays, however, their population decline. Based on data gathered through the Audubon Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) and the Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC), the Lewis’s Woodpecker population may have declined by 60% since the 1960’s.

Different than other woodpeckers, Lewis’ Woodpeckers are not morphologically well adapted to excavate cavities in hard wood. They are inclined to nest in a natural cavity, deserted Northern Flicker hole, or previously used cavity. Occasionally they will excavate a new cavity in a soft dead tree, dead branch of a live tree, or decomposing utility pole. The coupled pair may come back to the same nest site in consecutive years.

Food:
Studies suggest that Lewis’ Woodpeckers eat adult emergent insects such as ants, beetles, flies, grasshoppers, tent caterpillars, mayflies. in summertime, and mature fruit and nuts in autumn and winter. They are opportunistic and may react to insect outbreaks and grasshopper swarms by increasing breeding densities. Different than other woodpeckers, the Lewis’ Woodpecker does not bore for insects but will fly catch and harvest insects from tree branches or trunks or drop from a perch to catch insects on the ground. The species particularly favors acorns and nuts and fruit in autumn and winter, and hoards food in natural crannies such as tree bark and cracks in utility poles, making the food to fit crevices. They likewise eat huckleberry, currant, mountain ash and chokecherries. In some areas, wintering birds depend more on insects than on hoarded food.

Nesting:
House and box height placement from ground in feet: 12-20.

Hairy Woodpecker
The Hairy Woodpecker is the most widespread resident woodpecker in North America and a familiar site at backyard bird feeders. It comes readily to bird feeders and is found in a variety of habitats. The Hairy Woodpecker is a resident from Alaska across Canada south throughout the U.S. to the Gulf of Mexico. Some northern birds migrate south for the winter depending upon food source availability. Preferred habitats include deciduous forests, mature woods, small woodlots, wooded parks, urban and residential areas which have large trees.

Nesting:
House and box height placement from ground in feet: 8-20

Golden Fronted Woodpecker
Range and Habitat:
Resident in southwestern Oklahoma and central Texas. They are a species of the dry brush lands and semi open woodlands of the southern plains. The most common occurrence of this species in the United States is in the mesquite brush lands of southern Texas.

Food:
The Golden-fronted Woodpecker will consume as much fruit and nuts as it will feed on insects. In summer in Texas, these woodpeckers are known to stain their faces purple from eating fruit of the prickly pear cactus. In the late fall and winter the golden fronted woodpecker will consume large amounts of riparian pecan from local tree stands. Box height placement from ground in feet: 12-20.

Downy Woodpecker

This is smallest and most common American woodpecker, the Downy Woodpecker is found throughout most of North America from Alaska to Florida, and south throughout the U.S. except in the southwest. Preferred habitats include wilderness forests, woodlands, parks, urban backyards and gardens. The downy woodpecker will visit bird feeders regularly.

Food:
The small downy woodpeckers will use its bill to drill into trees and find out insects. They eat an assortment of bugs and are good to have around for this reason, consuming beetles, flying wasps, moths and insect larvae. They will also eat berries, suets and sunflower seeds and will visit a bird feeder for these.

Nesting:
House and box height placement from ground in feet: 5-15.

Northern / Common Flicker
Range and Habitat:
The Northern Flicker can be found throughout most wooded regions of North America and are residents from Alaska east and south throughout the U.S. Northernmost birds are migratory. Prefers forest edges and open woodlands approaching savannas, pastures, groves, woodlots, orchards, fields, meadows, woodland clearings, forest edges, urban parks, suburban lawns, on pole or tree at forest edge or along fence rows bordering crop fields.

Food:
Unlike most other woodpeckers, Northern Flickers are primarily ground feeders although they will forage on tree trunks and limbs. The diet of the Northern Flickers consists mainly of ants but also take other insects and some fruit, seeds, and berries. They need some open area and do not nest in thick forests, but they breed in most other forest types.

Nesting:
Nesting box should be completely filled with wood chips or shavings with the entrance hole facing southeast. Box height placement from ground: 6-20 feet.