A disabled yellow-bellied sapsucker was found disabled Monday, October 6, at the west side of the CenturyLink Center in north downtown, Omaha. The bird was obviously in distress when found about 1:30 p.m. It was shaking its head wildly and erratically, and could scarcely retain its grasp on the concrete base of the window expanse near the northmost entrance to the facility.
The bird was quickly caught and moved to the base of the row of trees just to the west. The bird seemed to recover satisfactorily as it was soon climbing along the tree bark.
Here, the sapsucker is looking much livelier after it had been moved to this tree, and recovered sufficiently to climb up the trunk.
This is the fourth record of a sapsucker window-bird strike in Omaha. The three other occurrences have all be fatalities. This is the first instance of this occurring at the CenturyLink Center, but is one more of the more than 500 bird-window strikes documented to have occurred at this building.
On this same date, a juvenile Yellow-bellied sapsucker was found dead at the front door glass of the Mercer mansion at 40th and Cuming Streets, as reported on NEbirds.