W. L. McAtee (1911) points out the black mark is characteristic of nearly all sapsuckers, and he links it up pretty successfully with a red forehead. For example, The red-breasted sapsucker lacks the black mark, but has a red head; the flicker, not a sapsucker, has a “black spot on breast, but top of head from bill is not red”; the pileated woodpecker “not a sapsucker. Entire lower parts black.” He continues: “All sapsuckers have yellow bellies, few other woodpeckers have; all sapsuckers have a conspicuous white patch on the upper part of the wing, as seen from the side when clinging to a tree; white wing patches in other woodpeckers are on the middle or lower part of the wings. The yellow-bellied sapsucker of transcontinental range is the only woodpecker having the front of the head (i. e., from bill to crown) red in combination with a black patch on the breast.”
Fall.—Generally when we see the yellow-bellied sapsucker in autumn, during its slow journey toward the Southern States, it is alone. A single bird may settle for two or three days in our dooryard, if there be a tree there to its liking, perching well up in it and rarely moving away. Here it is inconspicuous: its brownish color matches the bark closely; it moves deliberately, as if to avoid notice; by hopping behind a branch it keeps out of sight most of the time; and commonly it is perfectly silent. On occasion it makes use of its whining cry, and if two birds meet they may utter the red-breasted-nuthatch note, but as a rule this woodpecker is one of the quietest of migrants.
If we watch a bird for a time, we see that it is picking at the bark, dislodging bits of it in searching for concealed food. It hops forward, backward, and around the limbs, moving easily, taking rather long, rapid hops, seeming careless of a fall. When investigating crevices and peering under flakes of bark it cranes its neck, turning its head from side to side. The neck then appears constricted, like a pileated woodpecker in miniature.
At other times it may drill holes—even the young birds of the year, which can have had little experience in this kind of work. They drill with a sideways stroke, to one side, then the other, then, perhaps, a stroke straight at the branch. In this manner, before very long, a small area is denuded of bark, the sideways strokes giving it an oval shape with the long axis parallel to the ground. However, at this season, mid-October, in the latitude of Boston, little sap rewards their efforts.
Winter.—Sapsuckers spend the winter mainly in the Southern States, Central America, and on the islands south of North America, but there are a few records indicating that a bird rarely may remain nearly or quite as far north as the southern limit of the breeding range. For example, Fred. H. Kennard (1895) reports finding one in Brookline, Mass., on February 6, 1895. Collected, “he proved to be in fine, fat condition”; and Harriet A. Nye (1918) watched, in Fairfield Center, Maine, a bird throughout the winter of 1911, in which the temperature fell to 32° below zero. Apples formed a considerable part of this bird’s diet, although he often hunted over the branches and trunks of trees. He was last seen April 5 “as sprightly as ever.”
DISTRIBUTION
Range.—North and Central America and the West Indies, casual in Bermuda and Greenland.
Breeding range.—This species breeds north to southeastern Alaska (probably Skagway); southern Mackenzie (Nahanni Mountain, Fort Providence, and Fort Resolution); northern Manitoba (Cochrane River and probably Fort Churchill); Ontario (Lac Seul and probably Moose Factory); Quebec (Montreal, Quebec City, Godbout, Ellis Bay, and probably Eskimo Point); and Newfoundland (Fox Island and Nicholsville). East to Newfoundland (Nicholsville, Deer Lake, and Harrys River); Nova Scotia (Sydney and Halifax); Maine (Bucksport and Livermore Falls); southeastern New Hampshire (Ossipee and Monadnock Mountain); western Massachusetts (Chesterfield); New Jersey (Midvale); and western Virginia (Sounding Knob, Cold Mountain, and White Top Mountain). South to southwestern Virginia (White Top Mountain); northwestern Indiana (Kouts); central Illinois (Peoria); eastern Missouri (St. Louis); Iowa (Keokuk, Grinnell, and Ogden); southeastern South Dakota (Sioux Falls and probably Vermillion); New Mexico (Pot Creek and Diamond Peak); Arizona (Buffalo Creek and Kaibab Plateau); and southern California (San Bernardino Mountains, San Jacinto Mountains, and Mount Pinos). West to California (Mount Pinos, Big Creek, Cisco, Carlotta, and Mount Shasta); western Oregon (Prospect, Elkton, Salem, and Tillamook); Washington (Tacoma and Seattle); British Columbia (Beaver Creek, Alta Lake, and Masset); and southeastern Alaska (Craig, Wrangell, and probably Skagway).
Winter range.—The winter range extends north to southwestern British Columbia (Comox); northeastern Oregon (Haines); central Arizona (Oak Creek); southern New Mexico (Silver City); Kansas (Wichita, Topeka, and Bendena); Missouri (Lexington and Nelson); Illinois (Bernadotte and Mount Carmel); southern Indiana (Vincennes and probably Bloomington); southern Ohio (Hamilton and Hillsboro); northern Maryland (Hagerstown); southeastern Pennsylvania (Edge Hill); and southern New Jersey (Newfield). From this point the species is found in winter south along the Atlantic coast to southern Florida (Miami, Royal Palm Hammock, and Key West); the Bahama Islands (Nassau, Watling Island, and Great Inagua); and the northern Lesser Antilles (St. Croix). South to the Lesser Antilles (St. Croix); rarely Haiti (Gonave Island); and rarely Costa Rica (Coli Blanco and Punta Arenas). From this southwestern point the winter range extends northward along the western coast of Central America (including Baja California) to California; Oregon; rarely Washington; and southwestern British Columbia (probably Barkley Sound and Comox). In the eastern part of the country the species is found irregularly north to southern Wisconsin (Madison); southern Michigan (Ann Arbor and Detroit); southern Ontario (London and Lindsay); southern Vermont (Bennington); and central Maine (Fairfield and Dover).
The range as above outlined covers the entire species, which has been separated into four subspecies or geographic races. The typical form, known as the yellow-bellied sapsucker (S. v. varius), is found during the breeding season over all the northern parts of the range east of Alaska and south to Missouri and the mountains of western Virginia. In winter it is found south to Central America and the West Indies. The red-naped sapsucker (S. v. nuchalis) is found chiefly in the Rocky Mountain region from central British Columbia south (in winter) to Baja California and central Mexico. The northern red-breasted sapsucker (S. v. ruber) breeds from southeastern Alaska south through the mountains to western Oregon and in winter to central California. The southern red-breasted sapsucker (S. v. daggetti) is confined to the mountains of California and northern Baja California.