Stats

Lifespan

3-7 yrs

Size

Small

Diet

Omnivore

Activity

Diurnal

Social

Solitary

Biome

Temperate forest

Range

North America

Movement

Flight

Breeding

Egg-laying

Defense

Camouflage

Status

Common

About

This woodpecker drills neat horizontal rows of small holes called sap wells into tree bark, then returns to lap up the oozing sap and any insects trapped in it. It's the only woodpecker in eastern North America that migrates entirely out of the U.S. and Canada each winter.

Life cycle

1. 1.
   egg

   A clutch of eggs is incubated in the nest, kept warm by a brooding parent until the chicks pip free.
2. 2.
   hatchling

   A naked or downy hatchling is fed in the nest by its parents.
3. 3.
   juvenile

   A feathered juvenile fledges from the nest and learns to fly and forage.
4. 4.
   adult

   Fully grown with adult plumage.

Learn more

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Taxonomy

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Piciformes

Family

Picidae

Genus

Sphyrapicus

Species

Sphyrapicus varius