Why Do Woodpeckers Peck On Wood?

Woodpecker

When a woodpecker pecks, it may be searching insects for food that are living in the back of the tree, it may be digging out a nest, or it may be drumming out a “song” to its mate.

Most kinds of woodpeckers are our good friends.  They eat insects that harm trees.  Using its strong, sharp bill, the woodpecker digs out insects that are living in the cracks in the bark of trees.

In the springtime a woodpecker calls to its mat by drumming out a tattoo on a dry limb or the roof of a house with its strong bill.  Woodpeckers make holes in the trunks of trees for their nests.  They leave chips of wood on the bottom to cushion the white eggs.

The California woodpecker stores acorns in holes that it drills.  The woodpecker is not storing the acorns to eat.  A small worm has bored into each acorn.  Later, the woodpecker will return to feast on the fattened worms.

Only a few woodpeckers sometimes harm trees.  The unwelcomed ones are the sapsuckers.  As their name indicates, the drill rows of holes in the bark of trees and drink the sap as it drips from the holes.–Dick Rogers