A migratory woodpecker mottled with white and black with vertical white wing stripes. The male has a red crown and throat, and the female has only a red crown. The underparts, excluding the pale breast and above, are tinged yellow, transitioning to a whiter color in the lower region. The quietest and least conspicuous of the woodpeckers, Sapsuckers bore horizontal and vertical rows of holes into trees, let the sap run down the trunk, and suck it up with their tongues. They return many times to the same tree, also consuming the insects attracted to the sap