Why do sun spots appear near the equator of the Sun? I noticed on many examples sun spots are near the equator of the Sun. Why are there no sun spots closer to the poles of the Sun?
Indeed the regions where sunspots  form tend to be equatorial, with sunspots concentrated near the regions at +/- 40° latitude.

Sunspots are regions at temperature lower than that of the surrounding as for they are closing point of the sun magnetic field. At sunspots, the magnetic field is much higher than average and that hinders heat transport to the photosphere due to a reduced convection. 

While the magnetic field of the sun is loosely speaking and as seen by far described as a dipole field (similar to that of Earth or of a magnetic bar), its local distribution is complicated.



Picture from https://www.windows2universe.org/sun/sun_magnetic_field.html showing the magnetic field and spots forming at the loops closing areas. 

Besides the fact that the magnetic field flips every roughly 11 years, and keeps changing in meantime, sun, which is not rock solid, has a latitude depending rotational speed. This, superimposed to the dynamo mechanism for stars magnetic field generation, is responsible for "carrying the local magnetic field  along with rotation" and forces the field closing before the geometrical poles. 

In the words of Wikipedia under the entry stellar magnetic field https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_magnetic_field

"spots are regions of intense magnetic activity on the surface of a star. (On the Sun they are termed sunspots.) These form a visible component of magnetic flux tubes that are formed within a star's convection zone. Due to the differential rotation of the star, the tube becomes curled up and stretched, inhibiting convection and producing zones of lower than normal temperature".

This doesn't provide a clear picture of why the magnetic field behaves as such, but at least does tell that sunspots are a consequence of the magnetic field behaviour.

Understanding the magnetic field of stars and even that of Earth is indeed ongoing research. A little more articulated answer is given by the above linked Wikipedia page, particularly by sections Field generation and Surface activity.