104 BIRD FRIENDS 



Damage to trees and wood products. Wood- 

 peckers drill small holes in trees to obtain insects 

 and make large holes for nesting-sites. When these 

 are made in dead wood, no harm is done, but when 

 made in living wood, some slight harm may result, 

 and occasionally telephone-poles are weakened by 

 holes bored by woodpeckers. On the whole, the 

 harm done in these ways is very slight and does not 

 deserve serious consideration in the light of the good 

 these birds do. But there is one woodpecker which 

 does serious damage both to living trees and to wood 

 products made from trees; that is the sapsucker, of 

 which there are three species in the United States, 

 the yellow-bellied sapsucker being the only one 

 found in the eastern United States. 



The sapsucker feeds to a large extent on the bast, 

 or inner layer of the bark, the cambium, or growing 

 tissue, and the sap of trees. In order to obtain this 

 food, holes are drilled into trees. These are often 

 arranged in rings around the tree and may girdle it. 

 Strips of bark between the holes may also be removed. 



Since the inner bark is one of the channels through 

 which sap passes in the tree, the removal of this 

 bark seriously interferes with the growth of the tree. 

 The tree may simply have its vitality lowered, or a 

 few branches may die, or the whole tree may die, 

 depending on the number and arrangement of the 

 holes. These holes furnish opportunity for insects 

 and fungi to enter and do further harm. Altogether 



