Woodpecker Nests

When visiting my parents in Florida I always take many walks around the yard and neighborhood. There is always an abundance of wildlife to be seen. Winter time is nice because there is a lot of migratory birds in addition to the year-round residents. Some of the year-round residents are various species of woodpeckers.

A few years ago I made a large nest box designed for Wood Ducks in hopes some sort of waterfowl (Black-bellied Whistling Duck) or owl (Barred Owl) might use it. Soon after it was put up I saw a Great-crested Flycatcher examining it but it didn't seem interested. Then a male Pileated Woodpecker found it. It apparently liked it because for the past few years it has used it every night to sleep in. Interestingly this year my father said that there were two nesting in it but on this recent trip back I only saw the female using it. ( I wonder if the female evicted the male? ...or perhaps the male died? - I hope not.)

Here is the male Pileated Woodpecker - Dryocopus pileatus . Picture taken Dec. 2009. The Box was put up Mar. 2008.

This is the female Pileated Woodpecker - Dryocopus pileatus . Picture taken Dec. 2010 - using the same next box.

The nest box is attached to this Slash Pine (Pinus elliottii) across the pond. The box faces north west.

Another woodpecker nesting around the yard is a Red-Bellied Woodpecker. It is using an old bird house I bought many years ago. It too sleeps in this box every night and last spring made a nest inside. I find it a little strange because the box seems a little small for this specie of woodpecker but after putting 3 bird houses of this size up in a few day I saw the red-bellied woodpecker pecking at the entrance to make it larger (like it did to the original one).

Here is the Red-bellied Woodpecker - Melanerpes carolinus looking out of the bird house when I approached.

On a side note: all of these woodpeckers Im writing about on this post return to there homes before the sun drops below the tree line which means it is still sunny when they retire for the night.

Here are some Eastern Bluebirds - Sialia sialis checking out the Red-bellied Woodpeckers home.

Here is me standing next to one of the 3 bird houses we put up this time - there are a total of 8 around the house now (though one, a Kestrel house, was taken over by a swarm of bees!) This house Im standing next to was the one the Red-bellied Woodpecker was opening the entrance to but was chased away by some Eastern Bluebirds...

And here is the Kestrel box that was taken over by bees... Isn't this bazar? Especially how the honeycomb is sticking out of the entrance. ...I have never seen anything like it.

And so the last woodpecker that is nesting around the house is the Downy Woodpecker. It isn't using the bird houses though. It has made its own holes using the large bamboo stakes that are holding up fruit trees. This too looks like it is a small home but this downy woodpecker was tucked nicely inside until I walked by it and it flew out! I had no idea anything was inside (I thought my parents had made the holes but it was the woodpecker!) There are two bamboo stakes that I noticed had holes like this.

The Downy Woodpecker - Picoides pubescens going back into his house for the night.

In addition to these three species of woodpecker down the street there is also a Red-headed Woodpecker ( Melanerpes erythrocephalus ) pair that has been nesting in the same dead pine for at least the past 5 years. Every time I go back to Florida I see them at the tree.