{"id":95994,"date":"2021-03-13T06:06:49","date_gmt":"2021-03-13T13:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=95994"},"modified":"2021-03-13T08:44:44","modified_gmt":"2021-03-13T15:44:44","slug":"red-naped-sapsuckers-dietary-preferences-and-breaking-bad-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/13\/red-naped-sapsuckers-dietary-preferences-and-breaking-bad-habits\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-naped Sapsuckers – Dietary Preferences And Breaking Bad Habits"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I’m in the field photographing birds I have to constantly remind myself to avoid making assumptions.<\/p>\n

Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time in Idaho and Montana during the breeding season photographing Williamson’s Sapsuckers and Red-naped Sapsuckers bringing food to their youngsters in their nest cavities. During most of the year both species feed mainly on tree sap but during the breeding season they switch primarily to insects to feed their offspring because growing youngsters need protein and fat. Lots of it.<\/p>\n

In the past I’ve admitted to my blog followers that I’m a creature of habit because I feel comfortable with routine. So by nature I tend to make assumptions and that tendency sometimes leads me astray. For the first summer or two while I was photographing sapsuckers feeding youngsters virtually every time I could identify the insects that were brought to the nest they turned out to be ants. So eventually I became lackadaisical and just assumed that the food load for chicks was always<\/span> ants.<\/p>\n

That was a mistake. I should have known better – the word “always” is a trap waiting to be sprung.<\/p>\n

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This is a female Red-naped Sapsucker at the nest cavity. When they have youngsters the adults usually have food in their bills when they show up at the nest but this time she didn’t. So the young sapsucker became impatient for something to eat and poked most of its head out of the cavity.<\/p>\n

When they’re this age if I can see anything at all of the chicks its often only their bills so getting this photo was a treat, even though the adult is looking slightly away. .<\/p>\n

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This trip to the nest cavity was more typical. The chick stayed hidden away in the cavity and the adult, in this case the male, had a bill-full of ants. Often they had far more ants in their bills than this and many of them were still alive.<\/p>\n

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A tight crop of the same photo confirms that they’re ants. Occasionally one or more of them would escape and be crawling over the bill or the face of the adult but this time they all appear to be well secured.<\/p>\n

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But after I got home from that trip and looked more carefully at my images I realized that on at least one occasion the food delivered to the chicks in the cavity wasn’t ants.<\/p>\n

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In this case it appears to be mashed up grubs and\/or small caterpillars. A little research confirmed that “adults often crush prey items prior to feeding young”. Doing so is obviously messy but it prevents insects from escaping and crawling all over the inside of the nest cavity.<\/p>\n

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I know, big deal. So what if they occasionally feed their offspring insects other than ants? To me it doesn’t matter a lot but it does matter. When it comes to bird behaviors I take some pride in paying attention to detail so I hate it when I settle into a comfortable routine and make assumptions that turn out to be false.<\/p>\n

At the ripe old age of 73 this old dog is still trying to learn new tricks. With varying success.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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Notes: <\/em><\/p>\n