Hairy Woodpecker food question (1 Viewer)

[jzmtl]

or maybe a downy, not 100% sure. There's one that I see once in a while to my black oil sunflower feeder, in my short observation it appears to have trouble with the shelled seed while other seed eaters like cardinal and sparrow munch down without problem. Can they eat the shelled seeds efficiently? If not I'll make some peanut butter suet when it drops below freezing.

That leads to my next question, I see some recipe calls for whole shelled seeds, I'm wondering since I have almost a bagful of nyjer that no one seems to be interested in, would it be okay if I include that in or would it cause any problems (I cracked open a few with my nail and tasted them, they aren't bad).

 

[DownyWP]

Woodpeckers are capable of eating Black-oil sunflower seeds but unlike other seed-eating specialists, they have to jam the seed into a log and pick it apart. It is a lot of work for such a little reward that I offer a mix called Chickadee Chew from WBU that included shelled sunflower seeds and various nuts. Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers like shelled walnuts I have noticed but during the fall and winter I put up a homemade peanut butter suet and they will eat that before anything else.

The only birds I see eating nyjer thistle are Goldfinch and Pine Siskins and very rarely I have seen Red Crossbill try to eat them. Why not offer the thistle in a thistle feeder and try to attract a few goldfinch?

 

[jzmtl]

Thanks, that's what I suspected. I'll make some peanut butter suet and make a log feeder.

I'm located right around the border of gold finch's summer and year round range, so I'm not sure if there are any left, I did put out a homemade nyjer feeder but it has seen no activity so far.

 

[jzmtl]

The log feeder is made, going to cook up some peanut butter suet in a few days and see how it goes. I see on sialis.org cat food is mentioned to add protein, I happen to have some around so going to add as well.

 

[DownyWP]

Here's hoping your log feeder is getting some good use this winter. I've been reading where there is an abundance of winter finches on the East Coast, hopefully you are getting some Siskins and possibly Redpoll and Crossbills at your nyjer thistle feeder as well.

 

[Jack Dawe]

Being in the UK, my backyard doesn't get Hairy Woodpeckers (or any woodpeckers, come to that), but my birds generally are very happy with kibbled sunflower hearts. From your posts I would think this might be the way to go. Forget the whole-shell varieties. Go for sunflower hearts. No need to buy ready-kibbled - just put the hearts through a food mixer for a minute = same thing! Can be combined with peanut butter and suet and ought to work a treat. (But get good quality hearts with lots of oil content.)

 

[jzmtl]

It is getting a lot of use, by house sparrows! I was under the impression that they can't use perchless logs but they have no problem cling to it and eat all the PB suet and they sure love it...

Freaking winged rats... :C

 

[DownyWP]

It is getting a lot of use, by house sparrows! I was under the impression that they can't use perchless logs but they have no problem cling to it and eat all the PB suet and they sure love it...

Freaking winged rats... :C

I feel your pain trust me!! HOSP and Starlings can both cling to a log feeder, even to an upside down suet feeder with no problems. The only thing I can suggest is switching to plain white suet and BOSS when it gets really bad. I am somewhat lucky, I don't get HOSP during the winter, usually during the spring and summer. But I could potentially have starlings all year around...

 

[jzmtl]

I've taken a more aggressive approach towards the flying rats so there are fewer of them, and switched to commercial suet which they don't seem to like as much, so I'm okay with them for now. Yesterday however some starlings found their way to the suet :eek!: I drove them off, and hopefully they won't come back.

Being in the UK, my backyard doesn't get Hairy Woodpeckers (or any woodpeckers, come to that), but my birds generally are very happy with kibbled sunflower hearts. From your posts I would think this might be the way to go. Forget the whole-shell varieties. Go for sunflower hearts. No need to buy ready-kibbled - just put the hearts through a food mixer for a minute = same thing! Can be combined with peanut butter and suet and ought to work a treat. (But get good quality hearts with lots of oil content.)

I actually tried that, didn't work well for me. The few that came out of shell gets pulverized while most of them stay intact. I did use an old food processor though, don't want to put them in the actual kitchen duty processor.

 

[JRF]

I have both Hairy and Downy's as regular visitors to my feeders. They almost never eat seed and always go to my suet feeders. Around here Tractor Supply sells them for under a $1 each if you buy 10 packs so I find them affordable. I use the small cage type enclosures for them to keep the squirrels from running away with them. One is about 6 feet off the ground on a wooden post and that seems to get used most by the larger Hairy Woodpecker. Then I have two on a platform feeder I made with a roof that is basically two pieces of plywood - about 2 ft by 2 ft, screwed to a think tree limb above 1.5 ft long suspended from a rope hung over a tree limb that is also about 6 ft off the ground. The suet feeders are screwed to the limb supporting the upper and lower part of the feeder. That is the one the smaller downy's prefer though I occasionally see a red belly in there.
Good luck