Look for drill holes in trees for signs of yellow-bellied sapsucker

Look for drill holes in trees for signs of yellow-bellied sapsucker

If you find a tree with holes drilled in neatly spaced rows, this is the work of the yellow-bellied sapsucker, according to the Al. Dept. of Conservation. A wintering species in Alabama, these birds will drill in trees (above) and return to feed on the sap and insects attracted to the sap. Also known as a yellow-bellied woodpecker, the species is fairly common in winter, spring, and fall throughout the state.
It is easily identified by a diagnostic narrow wing stripe and finely mottled back and yellowish belly, chest and back areas. The crown or crest is red with black bordering. Completely migratory. It migrates southward as far as Panama. Summer breeding grounds are northward from North Carolina to Canada and westward into Alaska.
It makes holes in horizontal rows around live trees (trunks and branches), shrubs, and vines creating sap wells from which plant sap flows and collects. The sapsucker frequents these sap wells to feed on the energy rich sap and insects entrapped in the sticky residue. Its unique adaptive feeding habit of creating small resin wells in live plant species provides a rich carbohydrate food source for other bird species and small mammals.
New holes are normally made above or below existing holes on favored trees and other plant species. The yellow-bellied sapsucker announces its presence by a noted soft cat like “me-ah” sound. It communicates with others of its kind by a slow tapping sound.