I am observing a downy woodpecker enlarging the entrance hole (sized for a wren) on a nest box from last summer. I am curious about this behavior as the nesting season is over (it is now October). Is he/she preparing a nest for next spring or simply trying to find a cozy home for the winter, or something else?
It is cute to watch, but if it’s just for naught, I’ll have to repair the nest box with a smaller entrance so the house sparrows don’t take over. I gotta take care of my wrens.
If she is nesting, then I’ll let her move in rent free.
It’s a little vexing to have to repair the holes for the next season, but it doesn’t happen all that often, and it’s nice to know they’re getting some off-season use.
Maybe woodpeckers use nest cavities throughout the year, in order to protect themselves from predators and harsh weather. Could this behaviour be conducted by YOY woodpeckers who never had a nesting cavity? Or even adult woodpeckers, whose nesting cavity was taken over by a more aggressive species, and it’s easier to make a new cavity than to deal with the hassle of evicting the new tenant. Sometimes you reach a point in your life where you could win a fight, but you just want peace . . .
Could the woodpecker be enlarging the hole so it would have a cavity in which to roost/sleep during winter? I know many cavity-nesting birds use such crevices.
I listened to it. It’s only 30 seconds at 2x. It shows the same information as the article . . . which you can probably read in less than 30 seconds. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the input. It seems to me that this downy is securing a sheltered roost for the winter. So I’ll just leave it up all winter. Then this spring I’ll have to make a new nest box designed for wrens to replace it. Those house sparrows will take over if I don’t. grrrrr!
Uhm… sounds like you’re pretty good at building nest boxes. May I suggest you also build a 4- or 6-apartment condominium for the house sparrows? They love nesting together, one next to other, and thus may prefer such an alternative to squatting in single-family housing.
The reason I dare to suggest this is that over here I haven’t seen a single sparrow in the past seven years; they seem to be on decline. So, from my point of view, you’re lucky to still see them.
That’s unfortunate.
But in most of North America, where House Sparrows are an introduced species, they are super-abundant and seen as aggressive interlopers that often usurp the nests of native species.
They make nest boxes that have metal plates on the outside of the hole and metal entrance hole liners that are just a little tube. I’ll bet you could search around and find them for adding to your own boxes. Maybe make your own plate after seeing what’s out there.
