The Vancouver Sapsucker is easily mistaken for the Olive’s Sapsucker and I have confused them a couple of times. Both are extremely tiny and difficult to find. The animals documented here were between 3 and 6 mm and hiding amongst the algae they were feeding on. Their primary prey are tiny diatoms that grow attached to various kinds of red algae (and apparently some bryopsis as seen in a couple of these photos.) Their club-shaped cerata often reflect the colour of their prey –usually brown and/or green and their relatively transluscent bodies enable a viewing of the brown to green lines of their branching digestive glands beneathe the surface of their heads and dorsum.
