Williamson's Sapsuckers nest in western mountain forests. The radically different plumages of the male and female so confounded 19th-century naturalists that, for nearly a decade, the birds were thought to be of different species. Sapsuckers are unique among woodpeckers in drilling neat rows of tiny holes — or sapwells — in the trunks of trees. The sap provides food for the sapsuckers and snags small insects that are eaten by hummingbirds and warblers.

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