Sap Tappers

Listen for drumming as the yellow-bellied sapsucker looks for sweet treats in the trees.

- KEN KEFFER

Sapsuckers are a group of specialized woodpeckers that tap out row after row of individual sap wells in tree trunks. The yellow-bellied sapsucker is seen in the eastern half of the U.S. and across the northern forests, while the red-naped, Williamson's, and red-breasted are the species of the West.

Licia Kuckkahn Johnson, education director, and naturalist at the North Lakeland Discovery Center in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, remembers seeing her first yellow-bellied sapsucker and thinking that it didn't look very yellow to her. But she was particularly excited when she was able to identify their sap wells for the first time.

"After 20 years of teaching, I still love asking folks what they think made those crazy patterns on the trees," she says.

Standing Out