Species Spotlight: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker By: Wes Tallyn

The famed Western town insult is actually a woodpecker that is native to the United States. Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are migratory and show up locally in Florida during the fall migration and leave Florida during the Spring migration heading north.

The sapsuckers, as the name suggests, eat sap that oozes out of trees from the holes they open on trees. Sapsuckers often drill a line of holes in the bark of a tree, then return later to see if sap begins to leak from the tree. Their favorite trees in Florida seem to be palms and cypress. Other species like ants and honeybees benefit from the sapsucker holes by also collecting the sap from the trees.

I found this sapsucker in my neighborhood! They have a unique black and white pattern on their feathers, a yellow-ish underbelly, and some have a red cap on their head. See if you can find one today before they migrate north in April.