Q. We came upon a woodpecker and we’re not sure what kind it is, do you think he’s young? He looks rather fluffy.
Laura Hare
A. That’s actually an adult female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, she does look rather fluffy in some of the pictures, I think you caught her preening. A young sapsucker doesn’t have a red head and an adult male has a red throat as well as the head.
The sapsucker is wide spread across the Maritimes, but judging by the numbers of calls and emails like this one from people who spend a substantial amount of time watching (and photographing) birds, they are quite secretive. I don’t think they are trying to hide, when you do see them you can approach quite close, it’s just unlike other woodpeckers they don’t visit the old suet feeder. Unless one gets curious about all the activity around the hummingbird feeder or oriole offerings, you’re unlikely to have a sapsucker visit your feeder station.
If you listen in the spring you should however be able it identify them by their morse code like drumming. While our other woodpeckers have a steady drum, the sapsucker has a couple interruptions, making it easy to pick out.
You may notice that you’ve been visited by a sapsucker sometime after the fact, when you discover neat little holes evenly spaced around one of your trees (or firewood, I used to save those pieces but was told to get rid of them, hey, I’ve heard of stranger things to collect). This bird gets it’s name from the practice of drilling small holes to access sap. They’ll make frequent trips back to the tree to drink from the sap wells and to eat the many insects it attracts. Once the “sap bar” is open for business, it will attract other species including woodpeckers, warblers and the smallest bird with the biggest sweet tooth, the hummingbird.
The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is totally migratory, that is the winter range and the summer range have no overlap. It would make an interesting field trip to see what species are the winter beneficiaries of their sap wells. Maybe I’ll get some reports from you Snowbirds this winter.
Q. Is it OK to put out nesting materials? Someone said dryer lint wasn’t good, do you have any suggestions?
A. It’s great fun to offer a variety of nesting material, you may even get some new species to your yard that wouldn’t come for your feeder offerings. They say dryer lint isn’t recommended, although there is usually lots of dryer lint just outside the vent from your house so if birds really wanted it they could find it. My guess is they just don’t like it for nesting. There are however lots of other things you could offer, like pieces of string, cloth, human hair, dog hair (I once saw a nuthatch pluck hair for itself from my very old, very stationary golden retriever) and especially horse hair, sheep’s wool, and other fluffy material like quilt stuffing material. Cut everything in about 6 inch lengths. These can be offered in a variety of containers, a clean suet cage makes a good choice.
The best news...leaving your yard a little messy is a good thing, dead twigs, leaves and dry grass are great nest material, and why not offer them the way nature intended, right where they are, face it there’s much more pressing things to do than raking.
Don’t forget mud, I usually do, but luckily for me our yard has a steady supply. Barn and Cliff Swallows, phoebes and robins use mud for nest building so it might be a good idea to maintain a mud puddle if you are trying to attract these species.
You have lot’s of time though, I doubt you’ll have many takers until next spring, but if you’re looking for an excuse to get out of weed whacking the back forty, there you have it. “Uh, I better not, the Birdguy says the birds need long grass to make their nests.”
It’s never too late to start collecting, there’s never a dead gull on the causeway when you want one, so don’t put it off. The next time you see one get out and pluck it (white feathers preferred). It used to be you could collect horse hair off the barbed wire, not too many horse owners use it any more so you have to entice the horses over with carrots and comb their tails. Maybe in this case it’s better to just own up to the fact that you are a bird nut and ask the owners, if they see you combing their horses tail over the fence without permission they’re likely to turn on the electricity, I know I would.
Here’s two pictures from readers who unintentionally supplied artificial nesting material. First a very strong robins nest woven from pieces from a frayed tarp (Gayle Steeves) and second an American Redstart collecting some quilt stuffing for itself (Laura and/or Brian Hare)
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Finally, just what you want to hear, today (July 7) on the NatureNB information site, the first posting titled “fall migration” came across from a whale watcher in Grand Manan who observed birds crossing the Bay. Summers sure are short for bird watchers.
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