It is a mystery: Why are woodpeckers attacking the soffits of my home now that it is cold out?
About the only time I had previously seen woodpeckers attack my home was in the spring when male Northern Flickers hammer on the metal flange of the chimney. They have discovered that thin metal provides a more impressive sound than does a tree and so more effectively demonstrate prowess to a potential mate.
Yet, a couple of weeks ago, a Pileated Woodpecker made a racket as it probed under the chimney’s flange. As it was making a clatter at my chimney on Christmas morning, and as it wore a red cap, I succumbed to the temptation to suggest this was actually Santa Claus.
I thought nothing more of it. But then, a male Pileated Woodpecker returned and probed a soffit for comestibles. A few hours later a Northern Flicker did likewise. After years of not bothering to look for arthropods in my siding, why were woodpeckers suddenly taking an interest in the house?
Throughout this period, it has been cold. Woodpeckers have probed trees, pilings, and utility poles during other winters, but what is it about the wooden siding of a house that attracts them now? I don’t know.
A Pileated Woodpecker probes for grubs along the soffit of my home.
A few hours later, a Northern Flicker does likewise.
Here’s an interesting article from Audubon about the subject. Does it mostly happen during sunny, unseasonably warm days?
http://www.asri.org/ask-audubon/there-is-a-woodpecker-pecking-on-my-house-why-is-it-doing-that-how-can-i-make-it-stop.html
Edward, that is a nice article. However, it is really cold out, it isn’t nesting season, and the woodpeckers looked as if they were probing for food. As there are some woodpecker nesting holes nearby that could have been, and have been, used for roosting, that explanation does not look too promising. However, the stated preference for dark wooden siding certainly fits.
For years now the flickers and woodpeckers have poked holes in the wooden siding under the eaves of a large garage/work building on the property above me. The owners keep patching the holes but to no avail. The birds just return and repeat their poking.
At our house the woodpeckers, particularly the flicker, are clearly harvesting Cedar Bugs, still hiding between the cracks and especially on sunny days, on the sunny side of the house! We find them inside the house too and put them out to watch the flickers and Steller’s Jays feast.
Pat, that makes sense to me. Cedar bugs abound and woodpeckers (and Steller’s) are welcome to them.
I wonder if it isn’t a more common occurrence since the Western Conifer Seed Bug became so numerous? Since 1960, this native species to the Kootenays boomed in numbers, and has since happily increased in number in much of south and central and coastal B.C. This bug is often called a stink bug, as it sprays an acrid foul smelling concoction when it is disturbed. Yes, now you know which one I mean!! In October, this bug crawls up into the eaves and cracks of homes and tucks in a dormant state until April or so. Sometimes on sunny winter days it comes out for a little while. Roofers find them in the late fall and over winter and spring in great numbers under the eaves. A tasty snack for a foraging woodpecker or flicker. We saw an industrious flicker yesterday, working on our neighbours’ eaves.
I believe they need more calories to keep warm in this very cold weather and look for easy pickings where they have found them before. A flicker visited my deck this week, perhaps looking for suet that I put out in previous years on a very close tree. Alas that tree is no more…., nor is the suet. As it flew from it’s perch, it veered towards the finch feeder which is not designed with flickers in mind and so it found no food by my deck.
Well I don’t have an answer either.
But I do love so much the rose hips photo adorning your blog’s masthead!
Alistair, we all know that you are THE expert on Ogo Pogo, but did you know that there were dragons in the Koots? How else do you explain that dragon’s head in your photo at the top of this post?
I guess it was taken on the old forest trail up Kokanee Creek, ideal dragon habitat. I love dragons, but they can be rather unpredictable. I’d be more careful next time up there. peter b
peter b
Peter, ah yes, first photographing and then giving talks about Ogopogo was good fun. I have seen Ogopogo twice, and each time it was quite animated. However, your dragon (see below) looks a tad petrified.
The pix with the dragon head is gone! i didn’t know that your masthead pix changes that fast. Can i have my dragons head pix back! otherwise nobody know what i’m talking about. peter b
Peter, the header image is chosen at random, out of many, each time a page is retrieved. Having set the fox loose, I have no control over which chicken it picks for breakfast. So, I rummaged through all my pictures looking for a forest dragon. Is this the picture with the dragon’s head on the right side?
Alistair, thanks for getting the dragon head pix back – peter b