Pileated Woodpecker video

[dcyrilc]

We see them from time to time here on our ranch. Beautiful birds. I try to leave any dead/dying trees which aren't a threat to property for them. Enjoy having them around.

 

[deepNdirt]

You can have all the peckerwoods you want, I hate the pesty things
we had 1/2 dozen around here, tearing at the fascia boards of my 3 year old home house, it is bad enough that the carpenter bees bore holes in them and gets worst when the woodpeckers chisel out the larva the bees have laid in the holes, carpenter bees do not stop boring just inside the wood, they actually can tunne;l their way 8-10 inches throughout the wood.
the woodpeckers have also ruined several of our Bradford pair trees,............. I have done some study on the woodpecker behavior to try and better understand them and find ways of detour them from doing the damages they are like a Raven/crow they do not like movement of things so we put out tin pans on out Bradford's, this seem to help a bit but how do you keep the bees from boring.... answer: put up aluminum sofit... witch I will do one day if my house doesn't get pecked to the ground first.:confused2:
I have a love for nature & wild life and I think everything has its purpose heck I don't even hunt because we enjoy watching all wild life keep haven on our property, I can be on my tractor and have deer walk up behind me to see what I'm doing, but I have yet to figure out what good a woodpecker is? beside destrying my house, does anyone know why they peck the holes into trees? Answer: what they are doing is releasing the sap through the small holes .... then insects are attracted to the sap and get stuck in it, then the woodpecker comes back and has a feast on the insects
they will does this until they wind up killing the tree, and then this dead tree will be their home, they will peck a large hole in it and have More baby Peckerwoods.

 

[NSBound]

Besides looking for food (motivation #1), they also peck to mark their territory. Same for sapsuckers. I have a yellow-bellied sapsucker that shows up every spring/summer. He lands on my steel drum I use for burning trash, and he'll land on it and peck away for several minutes. Really loud. That way all the rest of the local sapsuckers know he's staked his claim. Makes you wonder how he doesn't hurt his beak.

 

[jinman]

I think your pileated woodpecker is looking for a mate, Ian. 'Tis the season of love, you know.:laughing: Did you notice how he pecked on the tree and then looked around everywhere? Pileated woodpeckers love to sit atop barns and other metal structures and let go with a loud rapping. The louder the better because the females can't resist a good. . . ah. . .rapper. I had one visit my house a couple of years back and attack my chimney cap. He was so proud of himself because that cap sounded like a drum. He'd rap for awhile and then gaze around looking for females. The first time I heard it, I thought somebody was tearing down my house.:shocked: One morning he was there at the crack of dawn when I wanted to sleep in. I tried to sneak up on him with a air rifle, but he heard me coming and flew away. I normally see one or two per season here and it's mostly a treat.

 

[QRTRHRS]

You can have all the peckerwoods you want, I hate the pesty things
we had 1/2 dozen around here, tearing at the fascia boards of my 3 year old home house, it is bad enough that the carpenter bees bore holes in them and gets worst when the woodpeckers chisel out the larva the bees have laid in the holes, carpenter bees do not stop boring just inside the wood, they actually can tunne;l their way 8-10 inches throughout the wood.
the woodpeckers have also ruined several of our Bradford pair trees,............. I have done some study on the woodpecker behavior to try and better understand them and find ways of detour them from doing the damages they are like a Raven/crow they do not like movement of things so we put out tin pans on out Bradford's, this seem to help a bit but how do you keep the bees from boring.... answer: put up aluminum sofit... witch I will do one day if my house doesn't get pecked to the ground first.:confused2:
I have a love for nature & wild life and I think everything has its purpose heck I don't even hunt because we enjoy watching all wild life keep haven on our property, I can be on my tractor and have deer walk up behind me to see what I'm doing, but I have yet to figure out what good a woodpecker is? beside destrying my house, does anyone know why they peck the holes into trees? Answer: what they are doing is releasing the sap through the small holes .... then insects are attracted to the sap and get stuck in it, then the woodpecker comes back and has a feast on the insects
they will does this until they wind up killing the tree, and then this dead tree will be their home, they will peck a large hole in it and have More baby Peckerwoods.

I had to split corrugated drain pipe to wrap around our flowering tree trunks to keep the woodpeckers off. I have seen aluminum cans tied to branches but don't know if that works or not. Woodpeckers will also utilize drain pipes and other home featurs to enhance their drumming. The sapsuckers are worse than the other species IMHO for tree damage. As you said, they will ring a tree with holes and re-visit regularly for the sap and the insects that get stuck in the sap.

I figure that I can always replant new trees.

 

[jimmyj]

Nice video. We get Pileated 'peckers here all the time. They nest just down back and it's really nice to see. Wood ducks move into their old holes too.

We used to have a hairy woodpecker who would rat a tat tat on our satellite dish. The sound resonated really good so I bet he had the girls coming from miles away. It also woke us up every darned day!

 

[Ridgewalker]

I have woodpeckers galore on my rural property. There are 4 pileateds that have spent more than one deer season laughing at me. They are big!

Any one familiar with Golden Flickers? I have those too. They have a bow tie and are very pretty.