When AC Bent did his monumental work, The Life Histories of North
American Birds back in the early thirties (?), he was sponsored by the
federal government who wanted to know the status of birds in America and
also the economic impact of birds. As I remember, in the woodpecker
volume he mentions periodically the damage done by woodpeckers. He does
indicate that sapsuckers are capable of inflicting damage but that they
usually picked older trees (higher sugar content?) and so the damage was
marginal.

Again this is from my aging memory so I would recommend checking the
woodpecker volume if you can.

I could just imagine the current government sponsoring a similar study of
birds today!





Jim Rosso
Issaquah, Washington
jrosso at mediaseek.com
jlrosso at msn.com
(425) 392-8440