← Handbook of nature-study for teachers and parents, Volume 1
Chapter 34
Lesson XV
The Sapsucker
Leading thought—The sapsucker has a red cap, a red bib and a yellow breast; it is our only woodpecker that does injury to trees. We should learn to distinguish it from the downy and hairy, as the latter are among the best bird friends of the trees.
Methods—Let the observations begin with the study of the trees which have been attacked by the sapsucker, which are almost everywhere common, and thus lead to an interest in the culprit.
Observations—1. Have you seen the work of the sapsucker? Are the holes drilled in rows completely around the tree? If there are two rows or more, are the holes set evenly one below another?
2. Do the holes sink into the wood, or are they simply through the bark? Why does it injure or kill a tree to be girdled with these holes? Have you ever seen the sapsuckers making these holes? If so, how did they act?
3. How many kinds of trees can you find punctured by these holes? Are they likely to be young trees?
4. How can you distinguish the sapsucker from the other woodpeckers? How have the hairy and downy which are such good friends of the trees been made to suffer for the sapsucker’s sins?
5. What is the color of the sapsucker as follows: Forehead, sides of head, back, wings, throat, upper and lower breast? What is the difference in color between the male and female?
6. In what part of the country do the sapsuckers build their nests? Where do they make their nests and how?
Supplementary reading—Bird Neighbors, Blanchan; Birds, Bees and Sharp Eyes, John Burroughs.
In the following winter the same bird (a sapsucker) tapped a maple-tree in front of my window in fifty-six places; and, when the day was sunny and the sap oozed out he spent most of his time there. He knew the good sap-days, and was on hand promptly for his tipple; cold and cloudy days he did not appear. He knew which side of the tree to tap, too, and avoided the sunless northern exposure. When one series of well-holes failed to supply him, he would sink another, drilling through the bark with great ease and quickness. Then, when the day was warm, and the sap ran freely, he would have a regular sugar-maple debauch, sitting there by his wells hour after hour, and as fast as they became filled sipping out the sap. This he did in a gentle, caressing manner that was very suggestive. He made a row of wells near the foot of the tree, and other rows higher up, and he would hop up and down the trunk as they became filled.—Winter Neighbors, John Burroughs.