Bird's-Eye View: Red-Bellied Woodpeckers common to Southeast

Now that winter has arrived and natural sources of bird food are scarcer, bird feeders are attracting a lot of activity. Woodpeckers are among the most consistent visitors, and several species can be seen visiting feeders. The Red-Bellied is the most common woodpecker in the Southeast as its species name -- carolinus -- implies. It and the little Downy Woodpecker are readily attracted with sunflower seeds and suet.

Woodpeckers are fascinating birds, and their preference for wood-boring insects makes them beneficial as well. They are best known for extracting insects and insect larvae from live and dead trees and for the ways they excavate nests -- usually in dead trees.

But pecking behavior has other uses, too. Rapid and persistent pecking is called drumming, and it serves the same purpose for woodpeckers that singing serves for songbirds. It tells other woodpeckers two things: First, this is my territory, so competitors should stay away. Second, I am healthy and able to secure a good home and so I will make a good mate for you if you are of the opposite sex.

Some good, some havoc

Woodpeckers make a variety of vocal sounds, which also serve to communicate different things to other woodpeckers. The most common call of the Red-Bellied Woodpecker sounds like "kwiiir" or "churr." This is such a familiar call that birders often recognize the presence of a red-bellied by hearing this sound before they see the bird. This vocalization is probably used to maintain communication with mates.

The Red-Bellied doesn't excavate wood for its food as much as many other woodpeckers. It relies partly on insects, but also on such plant food as acorns and berries. But like most woodpeckers, it does excavate cavities, and these are used for two very different purposes -- nesting and roosting. Nest cavities are excavated in the spring for the female to lay her eggs. Both sexes incubate the eggs and rear the young. Roost cavities are usually built in the fall and are used as safe places to spend the night protected from owls and other nocturnal predators.

Even though woodpeckers do a lot of good, they occasionally wreak a lot of havoc. They sometimes decide that a house will make a good place for drumming, digging for insects or building a nest.

It is one thing to have a woodpecker practice drumming on a nearby dead tree, quite another to do it on your aluminum gutters. The bird thinks that it has found a really resonant tree, while the home­owner thinks that he has inherited the woodpecker from hell. The red-bellied woodpecker usually drums only once an hour, and then for only a second. But he may make about 20 strikes in that one second. Hearing your metal gutter ring with that noise even once an hour can really jangle the nerves.

This behavior is annoying and can leave a lot of dents in your gutters. But the damage is worse if a woodpecker decides it wants to bore a nest cavity in your wood siding.

The average nest of a Red-Bellied Woodpecker is 10-inches deep, with an entrance more than 2 inches in diameter. That's a big hole in the side of your house. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has studied this problem and finds that the attractiveness of your house to these birds depends on the type and color of the siding and how close the house is to woods.

They are more often attracted to houses close to woods and that have natural wood siding with dark stain. Redwood and cedar tend to be favored by woodpeckers.

Whether they are using your house for nesting, foraging for insects or just a sounding board, there are several tactics you can use to discourage them:

□ If the birds are after insects in your siding, the best solution is to eliminate the insects. This can be done by treating the house with the appropriate insecticide or by painting it.

□ If drumming or nest-building is the problem, the best solution is to make the house unappealing to the offending bird. You can try attaching strips of foil or windsocks that may scare the bird away. A product called Terror Eyes, which also moves with the wind, may be effective.

□ In winter, providing suet may give the birds enough supplemental food that they won't be motivated to dig for insects in your siding.

□ For more about why woodpeckers like to hammer on your house and what to do about it, go to www.birds.cornell.edu/wp_about/index.html.

■ Bird's-Eye View is a joint column by Ron Morris and Phil Dickinson. Today's column was written by Morris. Morris retired after 24 years as curator at the N.C. Zoo. He has studied birds around the world and is currently the vice president of the Audubon Society of Forsyth County. Dickinson is a legal writer. He has been an active birder for 15 years, and is a past president of the Audubon Society of Forsyth County and heads the conservation committee. If you have a birding question or story idea, write to Bird's-Eye View in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27101-3159, or send an e-mail to birding@wsjournal.com.