The immature has no or slight red patch and may have no or slight brown tint. Females lay five or six, more or less, white eggs once per year which hatch after less than two weeks incubation and young leave the nest in about another four weeks, a relatively long brood season. Sapsuckers can damage trees in nurseries and landscapes. Build the yellow-bellied sapsucker birdhouse with red cedar, pine, or almost any soft wood. The yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius), about 20 cm (8 inches) long, breeds in northern regions (south in mountains) and migrates as far as the West Indies and Central America; red-breasted and red-naped races occur west of the Rocky Mountains. Adults have a brilliant red crown patch and adult males have a red throat patch outlined in black. The most widespread sapsucker in North America, the yellow-bellied sapsucker is an important part of the ecosystem and many other species rely on the holes it drills for their own foraging, including many other birds, hummingbirds, bats, and porcupines. A medium-sized woodpecker, the red-breasted sapsucker was formerly considered the same species as the yellow-bellied sapsucker and the red-naped sapsucker, but all of these birds have now been split into distinct species in the Picidae bird family. The damage is sometimes mistaken as insect damage. The lemon-yellow belly can be difficult to see on perched birds. The Sapsucker often excavates new cavities each season, often in the same tree as its last cavity. See the very similar red-naped sapsucker (formerly, along with the red-breasted, considered conspecific with the yellow-bellied).
Use wood rough-cut on both sides so that birds can grip both interior and exterior surfaces. Both sexes of varius have bold head-markings. Sapsucker damage is often in rows that makes identification easy. The male Yellow-Breasted Sapsucker is patterned dark gray above and light gray below with a distinctive white wing patch, and with a red forehead and throat patches. Look For The yellow-bellied sapsucker is a medium-sized woodpecker (8 ½ inches in length) with extensive black-and-white barring over much of its back, wings, and tail. Females have a white throat. But sometimes, the damage is less linear and dispersed as they chew to obtain sap from the trees. The female is similar to the male except it has only the forehead red patch and the upper and under has a light brown tint. Use wood rough-cut on both sides so that birds can grip both interior and exterior surfaces.
Use wood rough-cut on both sides so that birds can grip both interior and exterior surfaces. Both sexes of varius have bold head-markings. Sapsucker damage is often in rows that makes identification easy. The male Yellow-Breasted Sapsucker is patterned dark gray above and light gray below with a distinctive white wing patch, and with a red forehead and throat patches. Look For The yellow-bellied sapsucker is a medium-sized woodpecker (8 ½ inches in length) with extensive black-and-white barring over much of its back, wings, and tail. Females have a white throat. But sometimes, the damage is less linear and dispersed as they chew to obtain sap from the trees. The female is similar to the male except it has only the forehead red patch and the upper and under has a light brown tint. Use wood rough-cut on both sides so that birds can grip both interior and exterior surfaces.