Trap-lining

In ethology and behavioral ecology, trap-lining or traplining is a feeding strategy in which an individual visits food sources on a regular, repeatable sequence, much as trappers check their lines of traps. Trap-lining has been described in several taxa, including bees, butterflies, tamarins, bats, rats, and hummingbirds and tropical frugivorous mammals such as opossums, capuchins and kinkajous. The term "traplining" was coined by Daniel Janzen, although the concept was discussed by Charles Darwin and Nikolaas Tinbergen.

In the case of sapsuckers, a type of woodpecker, entrapped insects in sap are an essential source of food. For hummingbirds the relationship is to the seasonally flowering species providing nectar.