As the photographer who sees these birds gnawing all day on the Ginkgo tree, I really wanted to know more about their origin and behavior. Turns out they’re the female members of a family of Yellow Bellied Sapsuckers, which I had always assumed to be a creature of fiction invoked by Yosemite Sam of Looney Tunes fame. Alas, they are very real, and roosting in our backyard! In Brooklyn?! Who knew?!
