Red Breasted Woodpecker attacks my Birch

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Blackhorse

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Aaarrrrgggghhhhhh! I love the little present day feathered dinosaurs. Normally they’re great partners…responsible for keeping insect populations in check. But a have one now trying to keep my pet White Paperbark Birch volunteer in check. And it could kill it! Note the pattern of drill holes he’s made to get at the sap. Bastard! Solutions? Well, I won’t shoot him, though I certainly have an appropriate armory…incl. BB’s, .17 & 22 cal pellets & 22 rimfire. I value the bird more than the tree. Like I said, it’s a volunteer and not intentionally planted. I just wish I could value him in someone else’s yard.

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Aaarrrrgggghhhhhh! I love the little present day feathered dinosaurs. Normally they’re great partners…responsible for keeping insect populations in check. But a have one now trying to keep my pet White Paperbark Birch volunteer in check. And it could kill it! Note the pattern of drill holes he’s made to get at the sap. Bastard! Solutions? Well, I won’t shoot him, though I certainly have an appropriate armory…incl. BB’s, .17 & 22 cal pellets & 22 rimfire. I value the bird more than the tree. Like I said, it’s a volunteer and not intentionally planted. I just wish I could value him in someone else’s yard.

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Doubt it will kill the tree. Try hanging a few strips of tin foil. That might scare him off.
 
Aaarrrrgggghhhhhh! I love the little present day feathered dinosaurs. Normally they’re great partners…responsible for keeping insect populations in check. But a have one now trying to keep my pet White Paperbark Birch volunteer in check. And it could kill it! Note the pattern of drill holes he’s made to get at the sap. Bastard! Solutions? Well, I won’t shoot him, though I certainly have an appropriate armory…incl. BB’s, .17 & 22 cal pellets & 22 rimfire. I value the bird more than the tree. Like I said, it’s a volunteer and not intentionally planted. I just wish I could value him in someone else’s yard.

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Yellow bellied sapsucker. They injure the tree and then ants come to collect, then they eat the ants. I have never seen any dieback associated with sap sucker holes.
 
Is he really going after sap or after bugs? If it's a woodpecker then bugs but it's a sapsucker?
From the Audubon Guide…

“Drills tiny holes in tree bark, usually in neatly spaced rows, and then returns to them periodically to feed on the sap that oozes out. Also eats bits of cambium and other tree tissues, as well as insects that are attracted to the sap. Besides drilling sap wells, also gleans insects from tree trunks in more typical woodpecker fashion, and sallies out to catch insects in the air. Berries and fruits are eaten at all seasons.”,
 
Yup. Also known as “Flickers” due to the dark & white flashing visual they made when they flapped away into the woods. They seem to like hammering on the metal parts of chimneys or whatever…you can hear ‘em for a mile when they do.

Photo below is of Brewdude strangling a Flicker for pecking holes in his T1-11 siding.

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We have a couple out here on the mountainside in Trabuco Canyon, CA, who routinely hammer away on the eaves of the third story of our house . . . around 6 a.m. Now, that does not move me to strangle them, but it affords a route of entrance to termites, which has proven to be an ongoing problem. Until we heard the woodpeckers going at it, we could not figure out how the termites managed to get through the thick coats of paint on the woodwork But, as Jeff Goldblum's character famously said in "Jurassic Park," "Nature finds a way." One can hear the little darlings rat-atat-tatting away all over the mountainside, which we kind of enjoyed as part of the song of Nature, . . . until they went to work on our house. Now, we think of them as our exterminators' full employment program.

it appears that that the local woodpeckers have not read the ornithology books stating that they do this to go after bugs, since there are not a whole lot of bugs to be found in cured and painted wood . . . at least not until the woodpeckers afford the termites an entrance.

A little further north of here, around Irvine Lake, the woodpeckers tap out straight lines of holes encircling the trunks of the LIve Oaks, row upon row, whereupon the local squirrels stow an oak acorn in almost every hole for future use, so that virtually every tree trunk is studded with dozens of rings of embedded acorns.

Recently, we saw one of those pileated woodpeckers, the first time we'd ever seen one around here. Generally, we have a couple of other species, but not those big guys.
 
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Not a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker, though they likely are closely related. It’s a Red Headed Sapsucker, I’m thinkin’. And it’s feeding habits are all but identical.

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We have increasing numbers of red bellied woodpeckers here in Arkansas. Years ago we could see a few red headed up by the Missouri border, but the red bellies are more aggressive and chasing them out of their former territories. They also dominate our feeders and even the bushy-tailed rats (squirrels) won't mess with them.
 

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I had a strange knocking on the window frame a few days ago, looked from inside and couldn't see anything. Thought it was kids playing knock-knock Ginger. Heard it again and rushed out...there was a cheeky little Chickadee pecking at my window frame!? I went inside and did some research and apparently the little buggers make hollows in weak and soft wood for nesting. Not good news for my window frame.
 
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