Article Contributed on: 7/5/2009 6:31:33 PM
Have you been hearing rat-a-tat-tat on your roof or the walls of your house? Whatever you do about it, don't shoot, poison or injure a woodpecker. The reasons are many. First, it is not legal. Second, you are harming the ecosystem. And, third, there is an easy way to stop the tapping. The best reason is that we NEED them!!!
Friends of ours experienced heavy damage to their stucco house from woodpeckers making holes that had to be patched repeatedly over a two-year period. We heard about the problem from our friends while at their house having dinner one evening four years ago. The husband nearly had an accident during one repair job when the ladder slipped. Being bird lovers, we strongly suggested they put up a woodpecker box where the bird had been pecking. They have not had a problem since they put up the woodpecker house and it has been four years now. Each year they have been enjoying a new family of woodpeckers and no more repairs to their house.
We have a woodpecker house in our back yard and this year alone we have housed a family of squirrels in the spring and two clutches of woodpeckers. It is such a delight and the grandkids love the learning experience too.
Male woodpeckers will peck at
metal during mating season to assist them in attracting females. They don't do any damage by making noise this way. The pecking on siding or stucco is their attempt to find or make a suitable nesting place. We humans have destroyed forests and removed the dead wood they traditionally used for their houses. Don't we have an obligation to give them a place to live. Their habitat has substantially decreased to a point that their numbers have drastically declined and are becoming threatened with extinction. We have a lot to gain by putting up a woodpecker house/box. A woodpecker's main food is ants and they especially like carpenter ants. Insects make up 70% of their diet and who wouldn't like a few less insects around. Besides, they are beautiful creatures and so much fun to watch.
You can get a woodpecker house at any wild bird retail store or find the plans for one through the Audubon Society or your local library. If you also live in Lakewood, you can find a woodpecker house (flicker or downy) at the Wild Birds Unlimited store on South Wadsworth Blvd. The owners, Sandy and Scott are very knowledgeable and helpful.
If you enjoyed this story and learned something from it, pass it on. You may even find that once you have housed a woodpecker, that you enjoy wildlife so much that you go the the National Wildlife Federation's website www.nwf.org and learn how to make your yard more wildlife friendly.