The Wild Wonders Summer Camp kids chattered away as they dug into their lunches, oblivious to the yellow-bellied sapsucker who skirted up and down the bark of the tree just a few feet away, in search of their own lunch. I watched as the sapsucker took flight, their speckled wings flapping quickly through the trees, until they landed on the bark of another tree and disappeared! It took me a second to realize that they had entered into a small hole hidden in the bark of the tree. Had I not watched them enter, I never would have noticed the hole high up in the bark, or learned of the nest inside. But I could not focus on the yellow-bellied sapsucker nest for long. My campers had finished lunch and were getting restless.
Caught in the whirlwind of the busy summer program season, it took me a week to return to check on the yellow-bellied sapsucker nest. As I strolled toward the nest, a persistent screeching sound got louder, clearly emanating from the sapsucker nest. In just a week, the babies had gone from being silent to raucously demanding food from their parents. Standing still in the woods, I scanned the trees for any sight of the parents. Catching a flicker of movement, I watched as the male yellow-bellied sapsucker, distinguished by the red feathers underneath his beak, gathered a grub from the bark. He flew to the nest, sticking his head in to feed his young. The boisterous babies quieted as they ate their meal, a stark contrast to the noise just moments before. But it was never going to last, as the male sapsucker took off again to gather more food, the chicks resumed their demands.
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This male yellow-bellied sapsucker is still stunningly beautiful despite his slightly ragged appearance. Photo by Heaven Walker. |
Soon after the male left the nest, the female yellow-bellied sapsucker flew to the nest entrance with a bug in her beak, causing the hungry chicks to increase their cacophonous demands for food. She, too, fed the chicks, and immediately left to gather more food. I couldn’t help but notice the ruffled and worn feathers both parents sported as they frantically darted back and forth between catching food and feeding the chicks. I can only imagine how exhausting taking care of a nest full of hungry young can be.
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| The female sapsucker checking in on her young. Photo by Heaven Walker. |
Yellow-bellied sapsuckers can have between 4-6 eggs in the nest, and the parents take turns incubating the eggs for roughly 10 days before the chicks hatch. Both parents work diligently to feed the chicks, providing them with insects, sap and fruit. After nearly a month of being in the nest, the chicks fledge. The parents will continue to feed the chicks and teach them to collect food for over a week after they leave the nest. It’s during this time that the chicks are taught to drill for sap in the trees, creating neat rows of tiny holes in the tree bark that will soon flow with sugary liquid.
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| Dad peeking his head out of the cavity nest. Photo by Heaven Walker. |
I ventured back to the nest about a week later, hoping to check up on the chicks and their parents. But there was no symphony of screeching from hungry chicks. Searching around the trees, I found no signs of the parents fluttering from tree to tree either. The yellow-bellied sapsucker nest site was a ghost town. Despite missing the departure of the sapsucker family, it was a privilege to get to observe them as I did. I wish them well in all their sap-sucking adventures.
