#sphyrapicus

Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber), male with sap wells, family Picidae, order Piciformes, Western U.S.

From: Baird, Spencer Fullerton.  A history of North American birds. Boston : Little, Brown, 1875

Red-breasted sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber)

Yellow-bellied sapsucker (via U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region)

Winter is a good time to glimpse a most peculiar type of woodpecker. Unlike other woodpeckers, sapsuckers eschew eating larvae in dead wood, opting instead to drill for sweet sap (they supplement their diet with ants and other insects attracted to the sugary goodness). Look for neat, horizontal rows of holes in trees like maple, hickory, or poplar - if you've seen this before, you have a sapsucker living in your neighborhood!