Sapsucker Holes

Search in this area (on the right side of the trail if walking counter-clockwise) for the tree lying on the ground in photo #1. Follow the purple arrow to the standing tree and examine the trunk approximately 10-20' up to view scars from sapsuckers in the tree.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker holes are usually found in rings around the trunk. While some people are afraid these woodpeckers will harm or kill their tree, this virtually never happens. Trees are normally successful at growing over this damage, although the remnants of the holes are visible in the bark. Birds and insects have a vested interest in not killing off their food source!

Between October and April, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers migrate south to spend the winter in Missouri increasing our woodpecker population from 6 to 7 species.

During those months, there are 7 species of woodpeckers found in the Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary. Six species are present during the rest of the year.

Question Marks (named for the "?" on the hind wing) overwinter as adults and are often seen even on warm winter days when they may be found feeding on sap dripping from holes drilled by Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers.

photo credits: sapsucker: Dominic Sherony, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons. Tree and Question Mark: Donna Brunet. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Source: Wisconsin DNR Forestry News, https://forestrynews.blogs.govdelivery.com/2017/06/28/sapsucker-damage/