Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

By Winston Chen

March 27, 2004

The yellow-bellied sapsucker is a very interesting bird. Its Latin name is Sphyrapicus varius. But most people call it the yellow-bellied sapsucker because it has a yellowish underpart. It is also easier to say than the scientific name. Although it is called a sapsucker, it actually does not suck sap, it laps up the sap with its tongue.

The yellow-bellied sapsucker has a very colorful feathering. Its back is blackish, with a white rump and a large white wing patch. Juveniles possess a brown plumage until late in the Winter when it begins to take on the colors of its gender. The male has a red fore crown on a black and white head and a red chin. Unlike the male the female has a white chin. Both male and female have a yellow underpart but the female’s is paler. The yellow-bellied sapsucker beak is long, straight and pointy and is used to peck holes in trees. The holes don’t hurt the tree because the tree heals up the bottom of the holes quickly.

They communicate with each other with different sounds. The breeding call for these birds sound like a kwee-urk. This same call is also a territorial call. "Quirks" are used to strengthen the pairbond between two birds of the opposite gender. Week, week; wurp, wurp noises are exchanged between pairs and/or with their juveniles when they meet. When in the presence of a predator the birds give a repeated shrill. When they are just mildly excited, they have been known to give a mewing c-waan noise.

Their main food source is insects. The most common are beetles, ants, moths and dragonflies. When insects are not abundant, sap is an important food source. Sphyapicus varius feeds on sap oozing out of holes made by the woodpecker in the bark of poplar, willow, birch, maple, hickory, pine, spruce and fir trees. Other sources of food taken from October to February include berries and fruits.

The yellow-bellied sapsuckers live in an excavation in a tree, usually a live poplar, about 3-10 meters from the ground, in woodland areas. Some of them build a nest in trees such as the fir tree. The female lays the eggs and incubates them in their high-up nest.

The migration route of the yellow-bellied sapsucker is like many other birds. They live in northern deciduous and mixed coniferous forests in Summer. During Winter they live in forests and various semi-open habitats in the south. They usually use the Spring and Autumn to fly to their Summer and Winter habitats. In Autumn the yellow-bellied sapsucker migrates from southeastern Alaska, Canada, to central and southern United States, Central America, and the West Indies, and spend their Winter there. But some birds stay within the transition zones. In Spring they migrate back to the north.

The yellow-bellied sapsucker faces many predators. Its attackers consist of tree-climbing snakes, hawks, cats, flying squirrels, and other woodpeckers. Most predators try to eat them or/and their eggs, but some nest-stealing woodpeckers try to knock the eggs out of the nest while the adult is not there, then claim the nest before the owner returns.

The yellow-bellied sapsucker changes their behavior for different encounters. They raise their head so that the red throat patch of the male or the white patch of the female can be seen; this is to attract a potential mate. They raise their crest and shake their head to display aggression.

The yellow-bellied sapsucker is at risk of being endangered by deforestation in many areas and is currently endangered in Ohio and North Carolina. The effects of humans on the yellow-bellied sapsucker is negative because the human land use has transformed many forests over the past 250 years into cities and towns and those disturbances have powerful damage on the habitats of the sapsuckers. If we continue to deforest the trees at this rate, then the yellow-bellied sapsuckers may be wiped out before long.

The History of the Magnet

By Winston Chen

November 17, 2002

There's a legend that a sheperd whose name was Magnes. While he was on the slopes of Mount Ida, his sandel with iron nails was stuck to a big black stone. It is a fact that certain stones could attract to iron. As time passes by another discovery was found. The discovery was that iron that was rubbed against magnetic stones, made them magnets. A final discovery is that during Queen Elizabeth's time, that every magnet has two definite poles, which are opposite in nature.