Natural enrichment for acorn woodpecker series#

BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler. #īird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Today’s show brought to you by the Bobolink Foundation. Meaning Acorn Woodpeckers spend much of the winter shuttling them from one hole to another, finding just the right fit. Because in the weeks after a fresh acorn is lodged in a hole, it dries and shrinks. So does the Acorn Woodpecker just kick back and munch acorns all winter? Not a chance. But if trees with thick bark are in short supply, utility poles, fence posts, or the sides of barns will serve the same purpose. Some of them hold as many as 50,000 acorns, which the woodpeckers rely on when insect prey and other foods are hard to come by. A group of Acorn Woodpeckers is known as a 'bushel' a perfect description for this bird's unusual habit of squirreling away large quantities of acorns in granaries or 'acorn trees.' Some of these granary trees have up to 50,000 holes drilled, stocked, and maintained by extended Acorn Woodpecker families. A family of Acorn Woodpeckers may use this storage tree, or granary, for generations. And it chips out these little recesses to fit the acorns it’ll harvest throughout the fall.

We’re watching an Acorn Woodpecker, a bird found in parts of the western US. A closer look reveals thousands of these small pockets in the bark, most neatly set with acorns. Eyeing the tree with care, the woodpecker wedges the object into a shallow hole. Its face is almost clown-like, boldly patterned in black and cream, with a red crown. Poking and prying, the bird wedges its acorn into one hole after another, trying each hole for size, until it finds one with a perfect fit. Filling those drilled holes is a serious task, not to be done without careful consideration. A large, dark woodpecker clings to the side of a tree. When acorn storage activity begins in autumn, Acorn Woodpeckers suddenly turn into workaholics. Scare tactics as described above can also be implemented to encourage the woodpecker to find a more suitable nesting site.Acorn Woodpeckers Create Granaries, One Acorn at a Time Unlike woodpeckers that tap their way into tree trunks to mow down insects, these western birds bore small, tidy holes into wood where they store acorns (and sometimes other nuts) by the thousands. Flicker nest boxes are easy to make, or they can be bought at Portland Audubon’s Nature Store or other local bird shops. Solution: Problems of this nature can oftentimes be avoided by not removing snags or by hanging woodpecker nest boxes. This type of activity can be recognized by the appearance of holes 2 inches in diameter or larger and can occur in the fall or spring. In urban areas, woodpeckers will sometimes substitute houses for trees. When abandoned, these cavities are used by other cavity-nesting birds such as Bluebirds, Chickadees, and Nuthatches. In a natural setting, woodpeckers nest in tree cavities that they have carved out. These are short-term fixes in hopes that the woodpecker will move on to find a more suitable place to feed. A more surefire method is to cover the affected area with woodpecker proof material such as 1/4-inch hardware cloth, netting or plastic. Hanging windsocks, mylar tape, colorful streamers, or hawk silhouettes in the vicinity of the drilling will sometimes frighten woodpeckers away. Other remedies for this are variations on the scarecrow principle. If a woodpecker has found a source of insects it will be difficult to eliminate the drilling and the solution would be to treat the insect problem.

Solution: If you are seeing a woodpecker drilling for insects on your wood siding, you might want to have your home checked for insect damage.

Natural enrichment for acorn woodpecker series#

This type of drilling usually appears as a series of relatively small holes along an expanse of wood siding. Woodpeckers drill in wood to hunt for insects and to extract sap. Once the woodpecker finds that he can no longer produce his noise, he will usually go elsewhere. This can be done by covering it with a noise-deadening material such as burlap, canvas, foam rubber, or heavy plastic. Solution: This kind of activity can best be stopped by making the drumming site unsuitable for noisemaking. Favorite sites for this kind of “rat-a-tat-tat” drumming are gutters, downspouts and flashing, but woodpeckers will use siding as well.

Take Action Take Action Post news and reviewsĬommon Situations or Concerns Territorial Drummingĭuring breeding season (April-June) male woodpeckers will drum on loud surfaces to establish their territory and attract a mate.