Shhhhhhh!
Posted by Jill Taylor on March 27, 2003
Q: Why do pilliated woodpeckers make square entrance holes. I see so many half finished square holes...is there another reason they make these other than house building?
A: Pileated Woodpeckers are well known for making rectangular holes and when you see these, you can be reasonably sure who made them. When not creating nesting holes, these woodpeckers are excavating mostly for Carpenter Ants and various beetle grubs within the tree. One often sees several of these rectangular cavities because the birds are finding insects at different spots on a particular tree. Why they make this particularly shaped hole is not known. Maybe it improves their ability to locate these insects, but that's only a guess.
John Wiessinger ( March 27, 2003)