Since spring has arrived, any day now ruby-throated hummingbirds will begin showing up in our backyards.  When they return it is easy to believe that the sugar water we offer them in our feeders will address all of nutritional needs of these tireless migrants. Unfortunately, this is not the case.  While our hummingbird food supplies the birds with much-needed energy, it does not contain the vitamins, and minerals that are important to their diet. 

       The nectar that furnishes them typically comes from nectar gleaned from flowering plants.  The problem is many of the flowers that bloom at this time of the year are not excellent sources of nectar. Plants such as Daffodils, Bradford pears, even most ornamental azaleas produce little nectar. Fortunately, hummingbirds have another source of the sugar, minerals and vitamins they desperately need.  This food is tree sap.  A bird named the yellow-bellied sapsucker unwittingly supplies this “liquid gold.”

       This woodpecker drills shallow holes in the trunks of trees and other plants.  The sap wells become shallow reservoirs that collect tree sap.  The yellow-bellied sapsucker uses its brush-tipped tongue to mop up the sap.  To ensure that it has plenty of food, it chisels out lots of holes in concentric circles around a number of trees.

       Other critters such as butterflies, squirrels, and birds like hummingbirds also avail themselves of this unusual food.  In fact, the only Rivoli’s hummingbird I have ever seen was feeding at sapsucker holes in a tree growing in a backyard near Winder, Georgia.

       Ruby-throated hummingbirds often follow yellow-bellied sapsuckers to these holes.  However, whenever one of these special woodpeckers spots a hummingbird or other interloper feeding at its sapsucker holes, it promptly runs it off.

       I should note that this source of food is so important to rubythroats; their spring migration follows closely behind that of the yellow-bellied sapsucker. This helps ensure that rubythroats will have readily available sources of food as they proceed on their own journey north.

       I guess it would not be a stretch to call sapsucker holes Mother Nature’s Hummingbird Feeders.