About this time last week I was at Yuba Pass in the northern Sierra, swatting the insatiable mosquitoes and watching a family of red-breasted sapsuckers. (There is a Berkeley connection here: some of ...

The Pacific coast representative of the yellow-bellied sapsucker complex, the red-breasted sapsucker differs from other sapsuckers in its almost entirely red head and breast. Identification is ...

SEQUIM — Sally Harris had her camera focused on a Stellar’s Jay when she saw a flash of red out of the corner of her eye. “It was a red-breasted sapsucker, only the second time I’d seen that in my ...

What’s in a name? Sapsuckers are woodpeckers that do indeed suck sap. These birds have the peculiar habit of drilling tiny holes into the inner bark of a tree trunk, in neatly spaced rows. The birds ...

Most of the birders who pulled into Juneau’s Rainforest Trail parking lot at 8 a.m. on Friday were locals, but docent Brenda Wright set some expectations for out-of-towners and newbies. “This is a ...

Q: Something bored holes in lines across the trunk of my California pepper tree. Sap bled from the holes and I thought the tree might die. What should I do? A: The injury on your pepper tree was ...

Comedians who poke fun at birders often get a laugh by mentioning the yellow-bellied sapsucker, one of the most oddly named animals in a natural world full of odd names. But there is such a bird, and ...