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PICI FORMES 
Sapsuckers 
The sapsuckers form a group of woodpeckers that are adapted for 
drinking sap rather than boring for grubs. In consequence the tongues 
are short and modified at the end into a sort of brush (Figure 391e), instead 
of into a sharp, barbed spear. The remarks made under heading of Yellow- 
bellied Sapsucker are largely true of the two other species dealt with here. 
402. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. lb ric A. ventre jaune. Sphyrapicus varius. 
L, 8-56. Plate XXXIX B. Variegated above with black and white without sharp con- 
trast or very definite pattern; below, strongly tinged with yellow and a strong, black, 
crescentic gorget across the breast. Male with crimson crown and throat; female the 
same, or with dull white throat anti, occasionally, with black cap. Juveniles lack the red 
crown and throat, and the black gorget, the whites are tinged with ochre and the breast 
is dull, dirty brown. 
Distinctions. To be mistaken only for the Red-breasted Sapsucker of the west coast, 
which is similar in general coloration, but which has head, neck, and throat a solid crimson 
which is suggested even in juvenile birds. 
Field Marks. The red cap and throat are conspicuous in life. When these are absent, 
the black gorget in the adult is usually distinctive. Otherwise, the indefinite black and 
white pattern, with a broad white bar on forward part of closed wing, make best field 
marks, but will not separate from the Red-breasted Sapsucker of the west coast. The 
rolling tattoo made by sapsuckers in drilling is distinctive from that of the other wood- 
peckers. It ends in four or five isolated taps with appreciable intervals between, instead 
of stopping abruptly in the middle of the roll. 
Nesting. In holes excavated in dead trees and stubs. 
Distribution. Northern North America, except Yukon, Alaska, and west of the 
Coast Range, from tree limits southward. 
SUBSPECIES. The Eastern Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (le Pic A ventre jaune de 
I'Est) Sphyrapicus varius varius inhabits the wooded sections of the Dominion, west to 
the Rocky Mountains and into northern British Columbia. The Red-naped Sapsucker 
(le Pic it nuque rouge) Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis occupies British Columbia, except in 
the north, and on the coast, south to New Mexico, overlapping the range of varius in 
western Alberta. It differs from varius principally in having a red bar across the nape, 
separated from the red crown by a black line. The female has a red throat, which the 
female of varius rarely or never has. 
Economic Status. This is the only Canadian genus of the family that 
seems to be questionable. The damage is done in quest of sap, by girdling 
the trunks and branches of orchard and other smooth-bark trees with 
rows of small squarish pits, regularly spaced in horizontal lines penetrating 
both outer and inner barks to the sap-wood beneath. Several trees may be 
so tapped and visited in turn as the sap exudes. Though it is primarily the 
sap that is sought, the insects attracted are also eaten, for though sap is 
a large item in the sapsucker’s diet, insect food is also necessary. 
Although the damage to trees so girdled is not nearly so great as 
might be expected, they are sometimes permanently injured and even 
killed. All are weakened and a lodgment prepared for fungoid growth 
and insects. Unless severely and repeatedly attacked, however, most 
trees survive and completely recover. Even forest growth suffers damage ; 
timber trees are attacked and the consequent burr growths and wood 
stains ip the manufactured lumber, marking the old, healed wounds made 
by the sapsucker, reduce the marketable value of the lumber products. 
The whole question of the damage done by sapsuckers has been exhaust- 
ively discussed in a United States Biological Survey Bulletin, No. 39, 
“Woodpeckers in Relation to Trees and Wood Products," by W. L. McAtee. 
Under the heading of defensive measures against sapsuckers the author 
advises a limited use of the gun or the use of poison where the species is 
