Tag: bird

Sapwells, on a camellia branch (Camellia japonica), in Portsmouth, Virginia. 

These holes in the camellia’s bark are the work of the yellow-bellied sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus varius) that reside on the grounds here at FatChance Manor. The birds excavate the outer bark and cambium layer of the shrub to make reservoirs where sap accumulates, to be sipped at leisure. 

The sap gets gummy, slowing flows, so the wells have to be regularly maintained, which is why there is so much tapping going on in my back yard (click here for a recording of the birds’ drumming sounds). This photo also shows older sapwells that have begun to scar over. The birds instinctively observe some internal design aesthetic, drilling new wells in rows that perfectly align with their earlier work.

Our tenant sapsuckers have learned to take nectar from the hummingbird feeders I set out in the garden. I haven’t observed hummingbirds feeding at the sapsuckers’ sapwells, but apparently they routinely steal sap from the larger birds.

Sapwells, on a camellia branch (Camellia japonica), in Portsmouth, Virginia. 

These holes in the camellia’s bark are the work of the yellow-bellied sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus varius) that reside on the grounds here at FatChance Manor. The birds excavate the outer bark and cambium layer of the shrub to make reservoirs where sap accumulates, to be sipped at leisure. 

The sap gets gummy, slowing flows, so the wells have to be regularly maintained, which is why there is so much tapping going on in my back yard (click here for a recording of the birds’ drumming sounds). This photo also shows older sapwells that have begun to scar over. The birds instinctively observe some internal design aesthetic, drilling new wells in rows that perfectly align with their earlier work.

Our tenant sapsuckers have learned to take nectar from the hummingbird feeders I set out in the garden. I haven’t observed hummingbirds feeding at the sapsuckers’ sapwells, but apparently they routinely steal sap from the larger birds.