Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers get their name from the grids of shallow “wells” they carve out of tree trunks, enabling them to consume both the sap that collects and insects that are also attracted. Both sexes of this woodpecker show a crimson red cap and a long white stripe on the folded wings, while males also have a red patch on the throat.

This video accompanies Chapter 8, Avian Food and Foraging, Handbook of Bird Biology, 3rd Edition from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Wiley Publishing.

Recorded by Timothy Barksdale ,Macaulay Library