Coastal BC Birds: Red-breasted Sapsucker

Red-breasted Sapsucker

We went out camping with friends at Nanton Lake here in Powell River. It is a great campground maintain by Forestry and the local Western Forest Products Logging Company. Campsites are free (always a plus) and usually available either along the lake shore or nestled in the forest trees. All have picnic tables, room for an RV or tent, and plenty of nature.

Red-breasted Sapsucker on a forest snag.

Right next to our campsite was a family of Red-breasted Sapsuckers, mom, dad and two grown kids. They stayed busy harvesting sap from a nearby older Alder tree.  They had riddled the bark with lines of holes that they could visit and revisit to lick up the sap. And they aren't the only birds to take advantage of their tree taps. Hummingbirds also rely on them for extra food.

Double tapping.

They didn't mind our presence at all. They just kept on tapping and drinking to their hearts content. In addition to sap, they feed on insects either by tapping or foraging. Sapsuckers nest in tree or branch cavities or snags with no extra nesting material. From four to seven eggs are laid, but this family seems to have had only two survive to maturity. -- Margy

Reference: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology www.allaboutbirds.org (online)