Keeping squirrels out of my woodpecker house? (1 Viewer)

[Fraulein ash]

We have quite a few different types of woodpeckers near me in upstate NY, including a northern flicker and a pair of pileated woodpeckers. I am so smitten with them that my BF has decided to build me some bird houses for them. :-O

My problem is that we have an ARMY of squirrels that live in our roof and surrounding areas. They are forever ruining my birding experience. I wanted to place the flicker house in a pine tree in our back yard, abt 15 ft off the ground.. but I'm super worried abt the squirrels raiding it!! I doubt any woodpecker would choose to live in the house if I placed it on an iron post with a baffle around it, but that's the only solution I can come up with to prevent them from raiding the nest. Due to the size of the hole needed for flickers/pileated (2.5 inches) I'm guessing that the squirrels would have ZERO issues getting in.


Please help... I really love my woodpeckers and I would do just abt anything to have them use the nest box safely.

 

[snowyowl]

Good luck with that project. My experience with woodpecker boxes and squirrels is entirely negative. I put up my flicker box and it was shanghaied by Red Squirrels. They did the same thing with my smaller boxes.
On the plus side, last year a pair of flickers made a nest cavity in a half dead maple by the house. The flickers didn't come back to it this year but I mother and son Hairy Woodpecker just appeared at my feeders so I'm wondering if they are using the nest cavity.

 

[Hauksen]

Hi,

Please help... I really love my woodpeckers and I would do just abt anything to have them use the nest box safely.

Are nest boxes for woodpeckers a thing in America? In Europe, woodpeckers (as far as I know) always build their own nests, and some even build a new nest every year even when the old one would still serve perfectly fine.

This activity is beneficial for other birds as well, as the hollows created but no longer used by woodpeckers serve as welcome nesting places for many other species - even as hiding places for some mammals, I believe.

Two years ago, I watched a pair of European Green Woodpeckers build a nest in the trunk of a particularly large and healthy willow. They certainly didn't take any shortcuts, though there was no lack of smaller trees in the same copse ... if they were human, I'd have thought they enjoyed the challenge ;-)

Regards,

Henning

 

[Fraulein ash]

Good luck with that project. My experience with woodpecker boxes and squirrels is entirely negative. I put up my flicker box and it was shanghaied by Red Squirrels. They did the same thing with my smaller boxes.
On the plus side, last year a pair of flickers made a nest cavity in a half dead maple by the house. The flickers didn't come back to it this year but I mother and son Hairy Woodpecker just appeared at my feeders so I'm wondering if they are using the nest cavity.

Ugh, this is the response I expected, as I'm sure if this issue could be combatted there would be a lot more people trying! I was so hoping you guys had some special tips or tricks, or could confirm or deny that they might use the nest box even if it were mounted on a pole.

You are SOOO lucky that you got to witness the flicker nest by your house! I couldn't be more jealous!! I would totally settle for just knowing they had a nest around me that I could see from time to time. Can you check to see if the Hairy and son are in the nest, or can't you tell?

 

[Fraulein ash]

Hi,



Are nest boxes for woodpeckers a thing in America? In Europe, woodpeckers (as far as I know) always build their own nests, and some even build a new nest every year even when the old one would still serve perfectly fine.

This activity is beneficial for other birds as well, as the hollows created but no longer used by woodpeckers serve as welcome nesting places for many other species - even as hiding places for some mammals, I believe.

Two years ago, I watched a pair of European Green Woodpeckers build a nest in the trunk of a particularly large and healthy willow. They certainly didn't take any shortcuts, though there was no lack of smaller trees in the same copse ... if they were human, I'd have thought they enjoyed the challenge ;-)

Regards,

Henning

It's less common to build a woodpecker nest than, say, a blue bird nest. That's because they typically DO like to build their own nest, like you said. And secondly, because of the larger hole opening, there are so many mammals that can fit in there to destroy the eggs, people typically don't bother with them. But the woodpeckers have been known to use nest boxes in areas like mine where lots of woods are being destroyed and they have a huge loss of habitat. To encourage them to use the nest boxes, people fill the boxes with wood shavings for the woodpecker to dig out, so they feel like they're building it themselves


I had to look up the European Green Woodpecker... WOW!! Amazing bird!! What an immense joy that must have been to witness such a thing. Willows are my favorite tree, but I thought the woodpeckers typically went for softer wood, so that's pretty crazy! Thanks for sharing!

 

[snowyowl]

A lot of cavity nesters are using nest boxes because of the shortage of suitable trees for making or finding cavities. In my case, I have several large Manitoba maples beside the driveway. They are fast growing, short lived trees. One of mine was dying so I had a crew take down any branches that threatened the house but asked them to leave stumps big enough for the woodpeckers to excavate. There are still lots of live branches on the tree so there is good cover. The cavity was excavated on the side of the branch away from the house. I could see the flickers flying in and out, see and hear them excavating but couldn't see the actual cavity. I am only speculating the Hairies are using it. There are lots of smaller holes in the tree now and I'll try to get outside and have a look today.
I think that more large boxes would be used if it weren't for needing to put them up fairly high. I put my flicker box up originally in hope of getting a flicker or an owl to use it. As I said it failed although I've had great success with my Kestrel box which is also large and high. It has been used annually now for at least 15 years. I can't get to it anymore but a program at the local community college has taken over the management for the last few years. They even put up new box for me.

 

[Cafetbird]

Dredging up this old thread to see what you think about this! I had a woodpecker house, it hadn't been so successful with woodpeckers, but we had screech owls move in over a couple of years. Last year, the squirrels took over.

We had been successful ridding squirrels on our feeders using red pepper. I understand that the red pepper does not affect the birds, so I decided to give it a go on the birdhouse. I added new sawdust and shavings and sprinkled them with cayenne and red pepper flakes.

It seems to have been successful in ridding the box of the squirrels, and our red-bellied woodpeckers appear interested in the boxes at the moment... I haven't heard of anyone else doing this so I wonder if they're anything's that might be of concern?

 

[etudiant]

Dredging up this old thread to see what you think about this! I had a woodpecker house, it hadn't been so successful with woodpeckers, but we had screech owls move in over a couple of years. Last year, the squirrels took over.

We had been successful ridding squirrels on our feeders using red pepper. I understand that the red pepper does not affect the birds, so I decided to give it a go on the birdhouse. I added new sawdust and shavings and sprinkled them with cayenne and red pepper flakes.

It seems to have been successful in ridding the box of the squirrels, and our red-bellied woodpeckers appear interested in the boxes at the moment... I haven't heard of anyone else doing this so I wonder if they're anything's that might be of concern?

Nice 'out of the box' thinking, Cafetbird.
Red pepper on birdseed is usually only briefly effective, as the simply adapt to the spicy food. But I can't imagine them getting comfortable with spicy sawdust.

 

[Cafetbird]

Nice 'out of the box' thinking, Cafetbird.
Red pepper on birdseed is usually only briefly effective, as the simply adapt to the spicy food. But I can't imagine them getting comfortable with spicy sawdust.

Well unfortunately the branches are kind of obscuring my view of the woodpecker box this fall, but the squirrel certainly haven't come back. We buy suet cakes and seed blocks with red pepper now and that completely rids us of squirrels on the feeders.