Sphyrapicus ruber, the Red-breasted sapsucker, is a species in the Picidae family (Kaufmann 2017). The Red-breasted sapsucker gets its name from its foraging strategy, which consists of drilling neat horizontal rows of holes into tree trunks and then returning to those holes later to feed on the running sap and the insects attracted to it. Unlike most woodpeckers, S.ruber forages in healthy trees and can actually kill a tree if it drills too many sap-holes around its trunk (Seattle Audubon 2016). However, other species can also make use of the holes made by S.ruber to supplement their food intake with sap or with insects attracted to the sap (Walters, Miller, & Lowther 2014).
Red-breasted sapsuckers are similar in appearance to the closely related Red-naped sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis), but S.ruber has a red head and breast, in accordance with its name. The upper part of its torso is black with slight white bars, they have yellowish bellies and there is a prominent white stripe across each black wing, a feature which distinguishes them from other woodpeckers. Males and females look similar, but the female has less red and whiter coloration. Juveniles are mottled brown but have white wing-stripes like the adults (Seattle Audubon 2016). There are two varieties of red-breasted sapsucker, one which lives further to the North, in areas ranging from Oregon to Alaska, which is significantly redder than its Southern counterpart, which resides in California and has red-tipped feathers on its head.
S.ruber typically inhabits dense conifer forests, which is its preferred breeding ground. This species can often be found in mature and old-growth forests, but will breed in second growth as long as large nesting trees are present. They also frequent riparian habitats that often include large cottonwoods (Kaufmann 2017). S.ruber are common breeders in suitable habitats west of, and just beyond, the Cascade crest, to the outer coast. They are rare in conifer forests east of the Cascades and may occasionally breed in residential areas or city parks west of the mountains. Wintering birds can be found in lowland areas west of the Cascades, and they are extremely rare winter visitors across the mountains to the east.
S.ruber form monogamous pairs and both members of the pair excavate the nest cavity. Their nests are usually built 15-18 meters above ground in deciduous trees such as aspen, alder, cottonwood, or willow, but they may also be found in firs or other conifers (Seattle Audubon 2016; Kaufmann 2017). They typically lay 4 to 7 small, white eggs and both sexes usually incubate the eggs for 12 to 13 days. Both male and female birds also typically feed insects to their young. After about 25 to 29 days, the young leave the nest, although they are still dependent on the parents for ten days or so thereafter. S. ruber typically raise a single brood each year (Seattle Audubon 2016).
The main food of S. ruber is tree sap, but they also eat some fruit and insects, especially during the nesting season, which they find by foraging and fly catching. Their call is a harsh, mewing “waah.”They can also be identified by their distinctive drumming, which is a loud, irregular, slow tapping (All About Birds 2017).
The red-breasted sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber) is a medium-sized woodpecker of the forests of the west coast of North America.
The red-breasted sapsucker was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the woodpeckers in the genus Picus and coined the binomial name Picus ruber.[2] The specific epithet is Latin meaning "red".[3] Gmelin based his description on the "red-breasted woodpecker" that had been described in 1782 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds.[4] Latham mistakenly believed that his specimen had come from Cayenne in French Guiana. The type locality has been designated as Nootka Sound in the Canadian province of British Columbia.[5] The red-breasted sapsucker is now one of four species placed in the genus Sphyrapicus that was introduced in 1858 by the American naturalist Spencer Baird.[6][7]
The red-breasted sapsucker, the red-naped sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis) and the yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) were formerly treated as a single species, the yellow-bellied sapsucker. The red-breasted and red-naped sapsuckers interbreed where their ranges overlap.[8] Sapsuckers are in the Picidae, or woodpecker, family, in the order Piciformes.
Two subspecies are recognised:[7]
Adults have a red head and upper chest; they have a white lower belly and rump. They are black on the back and wings with bars; they have a large white wing patch. The norther birds, race S. r. ruber, have yellow bars on the back and yellow upper belly. The southern birds, race S. r. daggetti, have white bars on the back and a pale belly. The wing barring is white in both variants.
These birds make various noises; their vocalizations include a variety of chatter, squeals, and scream-like calls, and they also drum with their bills on various surfaces. Many of these noises serve to establish territory and attract a mate. This is in addition to the noise made by drilling holes for feeding and by excavating nest cavities.[8]
Red-breasted sapsuckers breed from southeast Alaska and British Columbia south through the Pacific Coast Ranges of western Washington and Oregon and northern California. The breeding habitat is usually forest that includes pine, hemlock, Douglas-fir, fir, and spruce, though they are known to use other woodland habitats. They prefer old-growth forest. They require living trees to provide the sap on which they feed.[8]
The birds that breed in northen part of the range migrate south in the winter, and individuals that breed in inland and upland locales often move to the coastal lowlands in winter, where the weather is milder. Winter habitat can be deciduous or coniferous woodland. This species’ winter range extends south to Baja California in Mexico.[8]
A sapsucker's tongue is adapted with stiff hairs for collecting the sap. Red-breasted sapsuckers visit the same tree multiple times, drilling holes in neat horizontal rows. A bird will leave and come back later, when the sap has started flowing from the holes. Repeated visits over an extended period of time can actually kill the tree.[9] The insects attracted to the sap are also consumed, and not only by sapsuckers. Rufous hummingbirds, for example, have been observed to follow the movements of sapsuckers and take advantage of this food source.[8]
Red-breasted sapsuckers nest in tree cavities. They begin work on creating a nest hole in a dead tree, usually a deciduous tree,[9] in April or May, and produces one brood per breeding season. The female lays 4-7 pure white eggs. Both parents feed the young, and the fledglings leave the nest at 23–28 days old. The nest cavity is not reused.[8]
The red-breasted sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber) is a medium-sized woodpecker of the forests of the west coast of North America.
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