eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Yup, we've all had those days. The perfect apartment or home was just within reach, and then fate stole it away. Maybe the rent or mortgage was too high, or maybe someone scooped up the domicile just minutes before, or maybe there was no on-street parking. But we've all had those days.

And in short order, we'll show you a red-bellied woodpecker having one of those days. But first, some background...

The birdhouse we built last year is popular - extremely popular. We've had as guests or brief "roosters"...

• A very sad house sparrow...
  
  
  
  
• A chickadee...
  
  
• A downy woodpecker...
  
  

All seemed to love the birdhouse, and no doubt all spent time at least roosting in it.

And that brings us back to the woodpecker having one of those days. Check out the picture below...

This is a red-belly absolutely determined to open up the entrance to this perfect dwelling come Hades or high water. But one small problem stands in his way. When we built the birdhouse, I covered the ingress with 1/8" thick diamond-plate aluminum sheet with a very fixed 5/4" to 6/4" hole... Not to be denied, the red-bellied hammered away at the metal for ten minutes or more. It would have been funny if it hadn't been so pathetic. Eventually, the bird simply gave up and flew away.

But that raises a more serious issue. Should we build another bird house for a larger bird? (See posts Let’s Build a Birdhouse! parts 1 and 2.) Last winter I suggested a future project like building a bat house or perhaps a raptor platform... Maybe we should rethink those ideas; frankly, it looks like we have a housing shortage right in our own back yard...

And there's yet another side to this - our back yard is becoming a buffet table for predators. Just today, we had a small hawk (Coopers?) swoop in and a coyote meander through. I guess that in the endeavor of backyard birding, a bit of carnage is the price of success.

If we were to build another birdhouse for a larger bird like the Red-bellied Woodpecker, I'd aim for the same basic design shape as the one mentioned above, but I'd probably increase the interior to 6"x6"x14". The opening would be about 2". And mounting something that large 12' off the ground would be a challenge. The way to go might be to simply buy a 16' 4"x4" or 4"x6" and hold it in a tabernacle rig set in a concrete base...)

Hmmm... Things to think about. As always, your thoughts are more than welcome.

See you by the feeders and perhaps a new housing development,

CapeCodAlan