Alabama, 191 5. 49 



YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER 



THE sapsucker is about eight and a half inches in length, and 

 is the only woodpecker having top of head from base of 

 bill red, combined with a black patch on breast. They breed 

 in the northern half of the United States and southern half 

 of Canada, and winter in most of the States and south to Costa 

 Rica. The yellow-bellied sapsucker is rather silent and suspicious 

 and generally manages to have a tree between himself and the 

 observer. Hence the bird is much better known by its works than 

 its appearance. The regular girdles of holes made by this bird are 

 common on a great variety of trees ; in all about two hundred and 

 fifty kinds are known to be attacked. Occasionally young trees are 

 killed outright, but more loss is caused by stains and other blemishes 

 in the woods which result from sapsucker punctures. These blem- 

 ishes, which are known as bird pecks, are especially numerous in 

 hickory, oak, cypress and yellow poplar. Defects due to sapsucker 

 work cause an annual loss to the lumber industry estimated at 

 $1,250,000. The food of the yellow-bellied sapsucker is about half 

 animal and half vegetable. Its fondness for ants counts slightly in 

 its favor. It eats also wasps, beetles (including, however, very few 

 wood-boring species), bugs, and spiders. The two principal com- 

 ponents of the vegetable food are wild fruits of no importance and 

 cambium (the layer just beneath the bark of trees). In securing 

 the cambium the bird does the damage above described. The yellow- 

 bellied sapsucker, unlike other woodpeckers, thus does comparatively 

 little good and much harm. 



— Biological Survey Bulletin. 



m 



R 



THE WOODPECKER 



AP, rap, rap, rap, I hear thy knocking bill. 



Then thy strange outcry, when the woods are still. 

 — Thus am I ever laboring for my bread, 

 And thus give thanks to find my table spread. 



