sapsucker? yes

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Yellow-bellied sapsucker

And speaking of woodpeckers:

Tiffiny Hamlin emails,"We were photographing a new family of blue birds at our bird bath when I saw something move in the magnolia tree about three feet from our back door. When I turned to look this is what I saw. 


"I tried to reset my camera settings and get a picture of it but once we saw each other he only stuck around long enough for me to get two blurry shots. There have always woodpecker holes in the this tree but I have never actually seen a woodpecker in it! I think, based on the pattern of the holes, that they were made by a yellow-bellied sapsucker. Is that was this is? If so, is it odd for it to be so close to the house...and people? I always thought they were rather skittish birds."


Yep. That's a sapsucker. Rather scruffy, almost dirty looking—like Charlie Brown's friend Pigpen—although this one is probably a first year female just molting into her more snappy adult plumage she'll be sporting next spring. It's the vertical white stripe down the folded wing and overall yellowish tint that I look for. Tiffiny even managed to get a photo with a few sapsucker wells in it. 

Yellow-bellied sapsuckers are the only woodpecker in our area solely in winter and the only one interested in living trees. They are also fairly common, even near our homes, and, to my mind, less skittish than hairy woodpeckers. They also revisit their active wells, keeping them open a oozing sap. 

Thanks, Tiffiny.

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