of the preceding species [yellow-bellied sapsucker], and in the
fruit-growing sections within its range, in southern Utah, for
instance, it is said to do considerable damage to the orchards in the
early spring and again in the fall, tapping the peach and apple trees
for sap in the same manner as _Sphyrapicus varius_ does in the East.
Its principal food consists of small beetles, spiders, grasshoppers,
ants, and such larvæ as are to be found under the loose bark of trees,
as well as wild berries of different kinds.”
W. L. McAtee (1911) gives a long list of trees that are attacked by
this species of sapsucker, among which this western race is charged
with doing considerable damage to many western trees, such as various
pines, spruces, hemlocks, firs, redwood, cedars, cypresses, junipers,
cottonwoods, aspens, willows, bayberry, walnuts, hophornbeam, white
alder, oaks, laurels, sycamores, mahoganies, pears, apples, cherries,
mesquite, ironwood, maples, _Ceanothus_, _Fremontia_, western dogwood,
madrona, buckthorn, ashes, and probably others.
Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1914) says, referring to the Colorado Valley,
where this sapsucker was evidently wintering among the willow thickets:
“Willows were the trees attacked by this woodpecker; but in one case a
single large mesquite, and the only one of many in the vicinity, had
been selected for bleeding, and its main trunk and larger branches were
plentifully bored. I visited this tree many times during the space of
three days, March 2 to 4, opposite The Needles, and invariably found a
sapsucker working about the borings. I shot two of the birds at this
mesquite, and there was still one there the last time I visited the
tree, although I had never seen but one at a time there.”
W. L. Dawson (1923) remarks: “In lieu of maple sap the western bird
makes heavy requisition on the fresh-flowing pitch of pine and fir
trees. As for cambium, that of the aspen (_Populus tremuloides_) has
marked preference, and the summer range of the bird, so far as it goes,
is practically controlled by the occurrence of the tree. Inasmuch
as this tree is short-lived and of slight economic importance, the
depredations of the bark-eaters are not seriously felt.”
Mr. Skinner says, in his Yellowstone Park notes: “I have seen the
red-naped sapsucker pick and hammer on dead aspens and on the trunks of
lodgepole pine for insects. On June 28, 1917, I saw one make frequent
flycatcher-like sallies from an aspen out into the open.”
_Behavior._--John H. Flanagan (1911) witnessed a rather remarkable
performance by a red-naped sapsucker, such as I had not seen recorded
elsewhere. He had chopped out a nest containing two fresh eggs and
was intending to leave them for a possible addition to the set, as he
had done successfully before, when one of the birds, “both of which
remained in sight, flew to the tree, perched a moment upon the edge of
the cut hole, then went in, and shortly reappeared with one of the eggs
in its beak. It flew to a nearby stub, not more than forty feet from
where” he “was sitting, calmly devoured the egg and dropped the empty
shell.”
_Winter._--Apparently the fall migration of this woodpecker consists
largely of a withdrawal from the high altitudes, in which it breeds, to
winter resorts in the lowlands. Major Bendire (1895) says: “During the
winter months, I have occasionally observed a red-naped sapsucker in
the Harney Valley, in Oregon, busily engaged in hunting for food among
the willow thickets found growing along the banks of the small streams
in that sagebrush-covered region, often long distances away from timber
of any size.”
Dr. Grinnell (1914) noted it, as a winter visitant, among the willows
and mesquites in the lower Colorado Valley. And M. French Gilman
(1915), referring to the Arizona lowlands, says: “The red-naped
sapsucker (_Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis_) is a winter visitant along
the Gila River, and while not to be called abundant, is frequently
noticed. I have seen individuals from October 6 to as late as April 17,
and in all the months between these two dates. Once I saw three in one
mesquite tree. Signs of their work are frequently present on cottonwood
and willow trees and occasionally on an Arizona ash. If there are any
almond trees in the country they are sure to be attacked, as they are
favorites with these birds. Only once or twice have I seen mesquite
trees attacked.”
SPHYRAPICUS VARIUS DAGGETTI Grinnell
SOUTHERN RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER
HABITS
The above name was applied to this sapsucker by Dr. Joseph Grinnell
(1901) and was characterized by him as smaller and paler than the
northern race and with a maximum extent of white markings. It is
evidently a well-marked race. But whether the red-breasted sapsucker
should be considered a subspecies of the yellow-bellied sapsucker
seems to me to be a decidedly open question, on which authorities seem
to have differed, or to have changed their minds. In support of his
views, Dr. Grinnell (1901) says: “I have examined a number of skins of
the _nuchalis_ type, and others approaching _ruber_ in almost every
degree, and I am certain that there is a continuous intergradation
geographically between the eastern _S. varius_ and _ruber_ of the
Pacific Coast. The intermediates do not appear to be the result of
‘hybridization’ and the case does not seem to be at all parallel to
that of _Colaptes auratus_ and _C. cafer_. Therefore I see no reason
why the Red-breasted Sapsucker is of more than subspecific rank.”
It is interesting to note that Ridgway used the name _Sphyrapicus
varius ruber_ in 1872 and again in 1874 (Ridgway, 1914, in synonymy),
but 40 years later (1914) he gave the red-breasted sapsucker full
specific rank, apparently having changed his mind. And, in the same
work, in a footnote under the red-naped sapsucker, referring to the
intergrades mentioned by Dr. Grinnell, he says: “But they may be (and
I believe are) hybrids; certainly there is no more reason for not
considering them as such than in the case of _Colaptes_.”
Certainly the red-breasted sapsucker and the yellow-bellied sapsucker
are as much unlike in appearance as the two flickers; and the hybrid
flickers certainly show “every degree” of intergradation. In the large
series of sapsuckers that I have examined, containing 87 typical
_ruber_ and 86 typical _nuchalis_, I was able to find only 8 specimens
that could, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered as
intermediates; I believe that these intergrading sapsuckers will prove
to be relatively less common than are the hybrids between the two
flickers.
It is interesting, too, to note that the first three editions of the
A. O. U. Check-List, 1886, 1895, and 1910, all gave the red-breasted
sapsucker full specific rank, in spite of the fact that Ridgway had
called it a subspecies of the yellow-bellied in 1872, and Grinnell
had done the same in 1901. But the fourth edition, 1931, adopts the
subspecies theory, in spite of Ridgway’s latest decision.
The southern race of the red-breasted sapsucker breeds in the Canadian
and Transition Zones in the mountains of California, from the Trinity
and Warner Mountains southward to the San Jacinto Mountains. Grinnell
and Storer (1924) say that it “is found in the main forest belt during
the spring, summer, and fall, but regularly performs an altitudinal
migration which carries it down into the tree growths of the western
foothills and valleys for the winter months.”
_Nesting._--Very little seems to have been published on the nesting
habits of this sapsucker, which probably do not differ materially from
those of its northern relative, about which more seems to be known.
Wright M. Pierce (1916) located one of its nests in the San Bernardino
Mountains, on June 26, of which he says: “The cavity was in the dead
top of a large live silver fir about forty-five feet up. The cavity
had a small opening and was only 5 or 6 inches deep; diameter, inside,
1½ or 2 inches. The nest held two large young and one smaller dead
one. It was hard to see how more than one bird could survive in such a
small space, so it was not surprising that the probably weaker bird had
apparently been suffocated.”
_Eggs._--The red-breasted sapsucker lays usually four or five eggs,
sometimes as many as six. Like all woodpeckers’ eggs, they are pure
white, usually with very little or no gloss, and they vary from ovate
to rounded-ovate. The measurements of 13 eggs average 23.79 by 17.25
millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =24.6= by 17.0,
23.81 by =17.86=, =22.5= by 17.5, and 24.5 by =16.6= millimeters.
_Young._--Incubation is said to last about 14 days; this duty and the
care of the young is shared by both parents. Mrs. Irene G. Wheelock
(1904) says of a nest that she watched: “Incubation began May 30, and
lasted fifteen days. The young were fed by regurgitation for the first
two weeks. * * *
“The young sapsuckers left the nest on the seventh of July, and clung
to the nest tree for three days. Here they were initiated by both
parents into the mysteries of sap-sucking. A hole having been bored
in front of each, with grotesque earnestness the mother watched the
attempt to drink the sweet syrup. During this time both insects and
berries were brought to them by the adults, in one hour one youngster
devouring twelve insects that looked like dragonflies.”
Mrs. Florence M. Bailey (1902) writes:
The last week in July at Donner Lake we found a family
of dull colored young going about with their mother, a
handsome old bird with dark red head and breast. They flew
around in a poplar grove for a while, and then gathered in
a clump of willows, where four young clung to the branches
and devoted themselves to eating sap. The old bird flew
about among them and seemingly cut and scraped off the bark
for them, at the same time apparently trying to teach them
to eat the sap for themselves; for though she would feed
them at other times she refused to feed them there, and
apparently watched carefully to see if they knew enough to
drink the sap. When the meal was finally over and the birds
had flown, we examined the branch and found that lengthwise
strips of bark had been cut off, leaving narrow strips like
fiddle-strings between. At the freshly cut places the sap
exuded as sweet as sugar, ready for the birds to suck.
_Plumages._--Like other young sapsuckers, the young of this species
are hatched naked, but the juvenal plumage is acquired before they
leave the nest. In the juvenal plumage, in which the sexes are alike,
the wings and tail are essentially as in the adult; the head and neck,
except for the white stripe below the eye, are dark grayish sooty,
though the forehead and crown are usually more or less tinged with dull
red; the sides and flanks are more or less barred with dull gray and
white; and the abdomen is dull yellowish white.
By the last of July, or first of August, the molt into the first winter
plumage begins, with an increasing amount of red coming in on the
crown, throat, and breast; at the same time the yellow of the abdomen
becomes brighter. This molt continues through fall and is often not
complete until November or later. The young bird is now much like the
adult. In fall birds, both adult and young, the red of the head and
breast, is much duller than in spring, “Brazil red” to “dragon’s blood
red” in the fall, and “scarlet red” or bright “scarlet” in the late
winter and spring; this is due, of course, to the wearing away of the
tips of the feathers; in early summer, just before molting, the red is
decidedly brilliant.
Adults have a complete annual molt, beginning sometimes in July and
lasting through August or later.
_Food._--The food of the red-breasted sapsucker is much like that of
its close relatives in the _varius_ group. M. P. Skinner writes to
me: “I have found red-breasted sapsuckers drilling on cottonwoods,
willows, yellow pines, and lodgepole pines; but all the actual feeding
I have seen was on willows. Mr. Michael tells me that these birds work
largely on the apple trees that have been planted in various parts of
the Yosemite Valley. When a sapsucker is at its wells, it takes a sip
now and then, but considerable time is used in watchful guarding, or in
driving away intruders or would-be robbers. In the case of such wells
as I found on willow stems, I could see no established regularity in
arrangement. They looked as if the bark had been irregularly scaled
off. In fact, such work may be necessary to secure the inner bark; yet
the birds actually took sap at such wells. One had a dozen willow stems
on which it drilled and sipped in succession; each one was only a few
inches from the next; and the bark of each, both above and below the
wells, was worn smooth. This bird went from well to well in regular
order, then back to the first well to begin again. Although sap formed
the bulk of their food in August, I have seen them also searching the
bark for insects during that same month.”
McAtee (1911) lists the following trees that are attacked by the
red-breasted sapsucker: Cottonwoods, willows, walnuts, birches, oaks,
barberry, sycamore, mountain-ash, pears, apples, peaches, plums,
apricot, orange, pepper, and blue gum (_Eucalyptus_). Emanuel Fritz
(1937) has, on several occasions, found this sapsucker attacking
redwood trees. “In each instance the individual tree was ‘peppered’
with holes in horizontal rows, from the base to the top. In virgin
timber, it is only an occasional tree that is attacked, and one
searches in vain for another victim in the general vicinity. * * *
“During the present year, the writer came upon his first example of
sapsucker work on so-called second-growth redwood. * * * The sapsuckers
attacked every tree in two groups, or families, of sprouts.”
W. L. Dawson (1923) writes:
The red-breasted sapsucker does puncture trees and drink
sap both in summer and winter. In summer it attacks in this
fashion not only pine, fir, aspen, alder, cottonwood and
willow trees, but such orchard trees as apple, pear, prune
and the like, as may lie within Transition areas. In winter
at lower levels it gives attention to evergreen trees,
white birch, mountain ash, peach, plum, apricot, English
walnut, elder, and pepper trees. * * * Instead of gleaning
at random, as we might expect, the Sapsucker makes careful
selection, like a prudent forester, of a single tree, and
confines his attentions henceforth, even though it be
through succeeding seasons, to that one tree. Starting well
toward the top of an evergreen, or well up on the major
branches of an orchard tree, the bird works successively
downward in perpendicular rows, whose borings are sometimes
confluent. In this way the bird secures an ever-fresh flow
of sap, from below. If carried on too extensively, or
persisted in for successive seasons, these operations will
sometimes cause a tree to bleed fatally, or at least to
fall easy victim to insect pests. I have myself seen limbs
of mountain ash trees, pear trees, and English walnut, done
to death in this fashion. Yet it is only fair to say that
but one or two trees in an orchard may be attacked, and
there is scarcely more danger of the trouble spreading than
there would be from successive strokes of lightning. * * *
For the rest, _Sphyrapicus ruber_ is a large consumer of
ants, and does some good in the destruction of leaf-eating
beetles. Berries of the pepper trees (_Schinus molle_) are
eaten to some extent, in winter, as are also, regrettably,
seeds of the poison oak.
W. Otto Emerson (1893) says: “One I watched every morning from my
tent fly to the top of a tall burnt tree and rap its roll-call as a
kind of warning may be to the flying insects. It would then sail out
like a flycatcher, catch an insect, and return to the burnt tree-top.
Its movements were very graceful and regular. As it dipped or circled
around for this or that insect the sunlight catching on the red breast
lit it up like a patch of flame.” He says elsewhere (1899): “One I
found in a willow tree trying to get the best of a yellow jacket’s
nest, dodging back and forth either to get a mouthful of their stored
sweets or the jackets themselves.”
Junius Henderson (1927) gives, in his table, the percentages of animal
and vegetable food, exclusive of sap, taken by this sapsucker. Based on
a study of 34 stomachs the total animal food made up 69 percent and the
total vegetable food 31 percent of the whole; 42 percent consisted of
ants and 12 percent of fruits, mostly wild; insects accounted for 11
percent and seeds for 5 percent.
_Behavior._--Grinnell and Storer (1924) write:
The Sierra red-breasted sapsucker is in our experience
well-nigh voiceless and its work is done in such a quiet
manner that it does not ordinarily attract attention, as do
the woodpeckers that are wont to pound noisily. The most
vigorous drilling of the sapsucker will scarcely be heard
more than a hundred feet away. The bird moves its head
through a short arc, an inch or two at the most, giving
but slight momentum to the blows. The chips cut away are
correspondingly small, mere sawdust as compared with the
splinters or slabs chiseled off by other woodpeckers. The
strokes are delivered in intermittent series, four or five
within a second, then a pause of equal duration, then
another short series, and so on. From time to time a longer
pause ensues, when the sapsucker withdraws its bill and
gazes monocularly at the work.
Mr. Skinner says, in his notes: “Although methodical, these birds
seem quite nervous, moving from stem to stem. Generally they perch
lengthwise of a limb when working or feeding but are apt to perch
crosswise when hopping from limb to limb. After a sapsucker has its
wells established, it finds it necessary to stay near to guard them
from other birds attracted by the sap, or by the insects drawn there.
Preening is often done while guarding the wells. The hairy woodpeckers
chase these sapsuckers from tree to tree. The Audubon and lutescent
warblers literally swarm to the sap-wells in the willows whenever
the sapsuckers cease to guard them, but I do not know that there is
active antagonism between the species. On one occasion, I saw a young
sapsucker chase off a chipmunk that came too near.”
_Voice._--Ralph Hoffmann (1927) says that “the ordinary cry is a nasal
squeal, _chée-arr_, somewhat suggesting the note of a red-bellied
hawk.” But it is apparently not a noisy bird, as Grinnell and Storer
(1924) say that it is “well-nigh voiceless”.
_Field marks._--The red head and breast of the adult are unmistakable
and very conspicuous. The young bird might be mistaken for the young of
the red-naped sapsucker, as they are much alike, but the head of the
red-breasted sapsucker is darker and often shows dull red. The broad,
white band in the wing is conspicuous while the bird is perched or when
flying; this is common to both adults and young, but the red-naped
sapsucker has a very similar white band.
_Winter._--Mr. Dawson (1923) writes: “Sapsuckers are more extensively
migratory than any other woodpeckers, save _Colaptes_, but _ruber’s_
migrations are chiefly altitudinal. Retirement from the untenable
heights is quite irregular, and dependent upon weather conditions. The
winter distribution, also, appears somewhat irregular and haphazard.
The bird is very quiet and rather stolid in winter, as becomes a bird
of high feather. It is, however, quite as likely to be seen in a city
park or on a shaded avenue as in a foothill forest.”
SPHYRAPICUS VARIUS RUBER (Gmelin)
NORTHERN RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER
HABITS
The northern race of the red-breasted sapsucker breeds from Alaska
southward to western Oregon, chiefly in the Canadian Zone. Ridgway
(1914) says that it is “similar to” the southern race, “but slightly
larger and with coloration darker and brighter; the red of the head,
neck, and chest averaging brighter, and whitish spots on back usually
smaller (sometimes obsolete).”
Bendire (1895) says of its haunts:
Throughout its range I think this species breeds frequently
at lower altitudes than _Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis_.
Fort Klamath, however, although but 4,200 feet above sea
level, has a very cool summer climate, frosts occurring in
almost every month in the year. The surrounding country
is very beautiful at that time. Heavy, open forests of
stately pines and firs, among these the graceful and
beautiful sugar pine, are found on the mountain sides and
reaching well down into the green, park-like valleys.
Interspersed here and there are aspen groves of various
extent, their silvery trunks and light-green foliage
blending artistically with the somber green of the pines.
These aspen groves are the summer home of the Red-breasted
Sapsucker.
_Spring._--In the vicinity of Fort Klamath, Oreg., Bendire (1895) found
this sapsucker to be “an abundant summer resident” and says:
They are among the earliest birds to arrive in the spring.
The first bird of this species shot by me, in the spring
of 1883, was obtained on March 13, and I have seen a few
as late as November. On one of my collecting trips, the
morning of April 4, 1883, while riding through a patch of
pine timber, near Wood River, the principal stream running
through the center of Klamath Valley, I noticed a flock
of these birds, at least twenty in number. They were very
noisy, apparently glad to get back to their summer homes,
and seemed to have an excellent time generally, flying from
tree to tree and calling to each other.
As I wanted a couple of specimens, I was compelled to
disturb their jollification; those procured were both
males, and presumably the entire flock belonged to this
sex. By April 20 they had become very common, and some
pairs at least were mated and had already selected their
future domiciles, in every case a good-sized live aspen
tree. The males might at that time be heard in almost all
directions drumming on some dry limb, generally the dead
top of one of these trees. They scarcely seemed to do
anything else.
Nesting.--He says of the nesting habits in the Klamath Valley:
As far as my own observations go, healthy, smooth-barked
aspens are always selected as suitable nesting sites by
these birds. The trees used vary from 12 to 18 inches in
diameter near the ground, and taper very gradually. The
cavity is usually excavated below the first limb of the
tree, say from 15 to 25 feet from the ground. The entrance
hole seems to be ridiculously small for the size of the
bird--perfectly circular, from 1¼ to 1½ inches in
diameter only--so small, indeed, that it seems as if it
took considerable effort for the bird to squeeze himself in
and wriggle out of the hole.
The gourd-shaped excavation varies in depth from 6 to 10
inches, and it is from 3 inches near the top to 4 or 5
inches wide at the bottom. The finer chips are allowed to
remain in the bottom, forming the nest proper, on which
the eggs are deposited. Frequently they are more than
half covered by these chips. The interior of the entire
excavation is most carefully smoothed off, which must
consume considerable time, considering the tough, stringy,
and elastic nature of the wood when filled with sap, making
it even more difficult to work when partly decayed, which
seems to be the case with nearly all the aspens of any
size. Probably eight or ten days are consumed in excavating
a satisfactory nesting site. All the larger and coarser
chips are dropped out of the hole and scattered about the
base of the tree.
Johnson A. Neff (1928) says: “The nests of these birds are placed in
whatever trees are abundant in their vicinity. In Klamath County, in
the foothills and in the lower valleys, alders, cottonwoods and aspens
were utilized; in the higher altitudes, firs were the common site,
with the alder and willow along the small streams. In the Willamette
Valley the firs, cottonwoods, willows, alders, and others, are used
indiscriminately.”
Near Blaine, Wash., Mr. Dawson (Dawson and Bowles, 1909) found an
almost inaccessible nest of this sapsucker 50 feet from the ground in a
big fir stub, “sixteen feet around at the base, above the root bulge,
and perfectly desolate of limbs.” He managed to reach the nest with the
help of a rope and cleats nailed on the barkless trunk. He says: