My oranges, put out for Bullock’s orioles and Western tanagers, were disappearing at an alarming rate this spring during the early mornings. By the time the orioles and tanagers got up and started breakfast, half of the orange meat was gone, and most of the juice had been sucked out. It was time for me to do some detective work.
I usually put out fresh orange halves in the evening because of my busy morning schedule, so after I put out the sweet offerings, I watched in the evening; nothing happened. Last Monday morning, I again hid to see what was happening and caught the culprits. Red-naped sapsuckers were stealing most of the sweets before the other colorful birds got up.
I have been watching a pair of sapsuckers as they have built their nest, created traps for insects and have hatched out their baby hole-drillers. This pair have nested in the same grove of quaking aspen for about three years now, and they have a routine down to a science. Their name comes from their drilling into the sapwood— creating lines of holes in nearby trees — that allows the birds to collect the sap on special hairs on their tongue.
They do not “suck” the sap, but the sap sticks to the hairs on their tongue and they “lap” it up along with ants or other insects that are caught in the sap. Other birds may be attracted to the “sap fields,” and the sapsuckers will defend their farms and chase other birds away. I have seen Bullock’s orioles and Western tanagers and even butterflies r.
