This most migratory North American woodpecker arrives in New Hampshire in early April, excavating a new nest cavity each year in the dead wood of a live tree, possibly to avoid ectoparasites from the previous year's nesting [Kilham 1983]. They breed in deciduous or mixed deciduous/coniferous forest, forest edge, orchards or other semi-open woodland, with a preference for aspens [DeGraaf and Rappole 1995]. Sapsuckers are single-brooded, gleaning actively from trunks, branches, leaves and the ground for invertebrates, particularly carpenter ants. The famous "sap-sucking" takes place from numerous horizontal rows of holes drilled by their sharp beaks, often from favorite trees. This behavior has been also been noted during migration and in the winter [Kilham 1983]. The northern limit of the breeding range is from eastern Alaska to Newfoundland; the southern limit extends from north British Columbia southeast to North Dakota and New Hampshire, then south in the Appalachian Mts. to North Carolina [AOU 1998].
The winter distribution is disjunct, from Missouri and New Jersey south through the southeast U.S., Texas, eastern Mexico, Central America to the highlands of Panama, and in the West Indies east to the Dominican Republic [AOU 1998]. Winter habitat is a wide variety of coniferous, deciduous and broadleaf forest and parkland, feeding on sap, fruit, nectar and invertebrates [Rappole et al. 1983].
Spring migrants are found in any wooded habitats, particularly feeding on sap, as many old apple trees attest in areas of southern and eastern New England where the species does not breed. Diurnal migration was reported by Audubon as early as [1842], but the extent of nocturnal movements is not clear. Spring movements start in March from the southernmost wintering areas [e.g. Bond 1960], reaching New England from mid-April to mid-May. Massachusetts fall migrants are present in September and October [Veit and Petersen 1993], with return to the West Indies by mid-October to November [Bond 1960].
In the northeast states, the Breeding Bird Survey shows a significant long-term increase of 5+% per year from 1966-2000, and a more than 9% per year increase in Vermont in the more recent period of 1980-2000 [Sauer et al. 2001].
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Observations
Sapsuckers are unique among all the migrants in the Connecticut River valley. In spring, they feed extensively on the running sap of deciduous trees, thus many migrants had already returned by period 1 (late April). The species was heavily concentrated in C sites in all states. Vermont had the highest sapsucker density of any state in A, B and especially C sites; there were very few observed in the A or B sites of CT, MA or NH.
Because of the small sample size, sapsucker numbers were not observed to change significantly from period to period, within either state or habitat. It is likely that this species may also be recorded more frequently during the periods of peak drumming. |
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