Do your trees have tiny holes in them?

Do your trees have tiny holes in them? That appear in rows. We get many calls each year from clients concerned about rows and rows of holes appearing on there trees . Sometimes they even have sap oozing out of them. Often times people think they are looking at bore holes. That is a pretty good guess, however, these are made by a bird. A Sapsucker to be exact. Perhaps a yellowbellied sap sucker. In my career I have on occasion seen Sapsucker injury kill of portions of trees by girdling too much of the sap flow. This is not typical however. For the most part the birds do not harm the trees. Keep in mind these cool little birds are a protected specie so we need to be careful how we deal with them. Usually something moving will keep them away . You can hang some aluminum pie plates or place pin wheels in the yard. They do not like the flash and motion. Also , you can try placing a suet feeder somewhere near the tree on which they are feeding.

These birds are great little back yard visitors but they are much better on feeders than trees!