Schiess: Noisy Red-naped Sapsucker babes keep the parents busy
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The noise of several hungry nestlings drifted across the aspen grove as I searched for an elusive huckleberry patch. My attention quickly changed from berry picking to bird stalking as I searched for the birds.
The nest of the noisy Red-naped sapsucker chicks was about five feet off the ground and two pairs of large bills from the nestlings filled the small hole as they called for food. Soon the Mom appeared with her bill filled with ants collected from nearby sap traps. A few minutes after the female flew off, the male flew in with a mouth full of colorful butterfly bodies and caterpillars. It appeared that Mom brought in the veggies while Dad spoiled the young with the dessert.
Something that was fed to the youngsters started their digestive systems to work overtime. For about 10 minutes, both parents were kept busy cleaning out messes left in the bedding. Or maybe it was just house-cleaning time. Whatever it was; it was very entertaining to watch.
Sapsuckers get their name from their feeding style and techniques. Unlike most woodpeckers that usually feed on grubs and insects found in dead trees, these sap-lappers target healthy trees that produce a lot of sap. They will also feed on insects trapped in the sap along with a little fruit and some berries.
During nesting the adults feed the young almost entirely on insects collected near the nest. As I watched the pair in action, the male would catch butterflies and moths; strip the wings before bringing the food to the nest. The female would make three to four more trips to the nest than the male. She would also gather sap from the tree next to the nest to feed the thirsty young. Only once did she bring in a collection of butterfly bodies and other colorful insects.
About a hundred yards away from the nest was an aspen almost completely girded with holes that produced a lot of sap, collecting ants and flies to be harvested. That tree was also used by two other pairs of nesting sapsuckers.
Their drilling of horizontal holes may kill some trees by girding it but they usually drill holes only on one side of mature trees. They will feed on the sap from both deciduous and coniferous trees. The female visited a lot of pines and fir trees to collect the ants as her bill and her head was covered with very sticky sap that glued the ants to her head and bill.
Sapsuckers do not “suck” the sap, but have a short specialized tongue with an end like a hair brush that collects the sap. After feeding you may sometimes see them scrub leftover sap off their bills on the bark. This can be quite humorous. The female would scrub her bill, collect the sap on the tip and feed it to the youngsters.
Red-naped sapsuckers live in mixed forests, but prefer aspen, willow and cottonwoods. Their nests are usually drilled in live hollow aspen or a dead conifer. Trees are often reused, but new nests are drilled each year.
Sapsuckers are monogamous with both parents incubating the eggs and feeding the nestlings. The incubation time is very short with the eggs hatching from 12 to 13 days after sitting begins. The young will leave the nest about a month after hatching.
While in the nest, the young are very noisy, calling continuously for more food and attention. Both parents remain busy trying to feed the five or six rapidly growing bug-eating machines. Like some teenage boys, they never seem to fill up.
Southeastern Idaho has three species of sapsuckers, the Williamson and Yellow-bellied along with the most numerous Red-naped. Up until 1985 there was only one recognized species of sapsucker as all of them have yellow bellies. Now the old subspecies of the Red-naped, Yellow-bellied and Red-breasted are recognized as three species that often interbreed. The Red-breasted are extremely rare in this area.
Being one of the most migratory of all woodpeckers, each fall groups or “slurps” of sapsuckers’ as they are known, will migrate from Southeastern Idaho to central Mexico. Great places to view these beautiful birds are in the Moody Creek area, Beaver Dick Park and the Teton River bottoms.
If you encounter some very noisy birds, carefully examine the area. You may be entertained by a family of sap-suckers as they gather food for the boisterous little ones.