Way up in a tree on the 乐播传媒 campus, a bird hammered away at the wood on a recent afternoon.
Mindful of 乐播传媒鈥� birding history, I was curious: What species was this rat-a-tapping bird? The possible pecking order, I figured, included two familiar Maine species: the downy woodpecker and hairy woodpecker.
Professor of Biology Don Dearborn, an expert in avian biology, cheerfully ID鈥檇 the bird after I showed him a video clip and still image.
It鈥檚 neither of those woodpeckers, he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a yellow-bellied sapsucker,鈥� he explained, pointing to the black and white mottling on its back 鈥渞ather than a block of solid white, as with the downy or hairy.鈥�
And, he added, its red throat makes it a male. 鈥淢ale and female sapsuckers both have a red forehead 鈥� though not visible in your photo 鈥� but only the males have a red throat.鈥�
You can tell the species and gender of this bird by the red patch on its throat.
The species’ eponymous yellow belly can be 鈥渜uite variable,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his one appears to have at least a tiny bit, low on its flanks.鈥�
The sapsucker鈥檚 chosen tree, located in a small stand of mixed conifers at the corner of Nichols Street and Campus Avenue across from the Historic Quad, is clearly a spruce.
I asked Brett Huggett, assistant professor of biology聽and architect of the 乐播传媒 Canopy website, which species. 鈥淎re its branches hanging down?鈥� he asked me. (Yup.) 鈥淭hen it鈥檚 a Norway spruce.鈥�
The sapsucker is a migratory bird, so it can seem a bit more rare in Maine than the year-round downy or hairy woodpeckers. As its name suggests, the and feeds on the sap that oozes out.
The yellow-bellied sapsucker was doing his thing in a Norway spruce (center), a species characterized by drooping branches. On left and right are red pines. This stand of conifers is at the corner of Nichols Street and Campus Avenue.
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