Woodpeckers are excavating something I don’t want excavated!

Are flickers excavating something you don’t want excavated?

Are flickers excavating something you don’t want excavated? Male Northern Flickers drum away on anything loud they can find, to attract female woodpeckers during spring nesting season.  If you’re hearing a loud drumming, it may be the woodpecker “calling” to its mate.  If woodpeckers are trying to do more than make noise, install metal flashing or heavy wire mesh over the area, with blobs of silicon caulking that flickers don’t like to peck.  Northern Flickers are challenged to find nesting spots in urban and suburban areas, since their natural nesting places are hollowed out snags.  You may be able to divert attention by mounting a flicker nest box near the birds’ roosting site.  Be sure to fill to the box with pine or cedar shavings, since it’s part of a woodpecker couple’s nesting ritual to excavate the cavity where they will make their nest.