Did you know that woodpeckers use their sharp beaks for more than just finding food? They also use them for hollowing out cavities in wood for their nests. Want to learn more about this process and other woodpecker nesting habits? You’ve come to the right place! Read on to learn more about how woodpeckers make their nests, how many eggs they lay, and how they raise their young.
What You'll Learn Today
Where Do Woodpeckers Make Their Nests?
Woodpeckers typically build their nests in hollowed-out parts of tree trunks. The hollows have to be large enough to support both adult woodpeckers and several growing babies.
Most often, woodpeckers create these hollows by pounding on the wood and slowly chipping it away. With most woodpecker species, the male does most of the work of constructing the hollows.
Sometimes woodpeckers will nest in available wooden birdhouses rather than building their own hollows. If you want to attract woodpeckers to your area, set out a large birdhouse or two in your yard and place peanut butter or sunflower seeds nearby.
Do Woodpeckers Use the Same Nest Each Year?
It depends on the species.
Most woodpecker species make new nests every spring. They do this because their old nests are usually a mess–full of feces, pieces of egg shells, and old food, making them unfit for raising another batch of babies.
Making a nest is no small feat though. It usually takes the male woodpecker about 3-6 weeks to hollow out a hole in the tree, then even longer for both the male and female to build the nest inside.
For some woodpecker species, that takes way too much work. There are a few species, most notably red-headed and acorn woodpeckers, who will return to the same nest, clean it out, and reuse it year after year.
Why do these species reuse their nests?
One study done on acorn woodpeckers found that this species tends to reuse nests to save time and effort on constructing new nests. This may be the driving reason behind every woodpecker species that reuses old nesting areas.
Again, though, most species do not reuse their nests, instead opting to start fresh with a new nest each year. Some of these species include:
- Hairy woodpeckers
- Pileated woodpeckers
- Downy woodpeckers
What Time of Year Do Woodpeckers Lay Eggs?
Most woodpeckers lay eggs during the spring and early summer, but it can depend on species and region as well as fluctuations in weather patterns from year to year.
Some woodpeckers lay eggs during early to mid spring, usually between March and May. Others start laying eggs a little later, especially from April through July.
In some regions of the deep south, such as southern Florida, some woodpecker species may lay an additional clutch of eggs as late as August.
How Many Eggs Does a Woodpecker Lay?
The number of eggs laid each season again depends on the specific woodpecker species we’re talking about. The average is somewhere between 4 and 6, but this number can vary widely between species, as you’ll see below:
- Red-headed woodpecker: 3 to 10 eggs
- Pileated woodpecker: 3 to 5 eggs
- Green woodpecker: 5 to 7 eggs
- Downy woodpecker: 3 to 8 eggs
Most woodpeckers incubate their eggs for 7 to 14 days, though some incubate for much longer. Both males and females incubate the eggs.
How Often Do Woodpeckers Have Babies?
Most species have one or two broods per year, both in the spring and summer. In the south, they may have as many as 3 broods in a year because the weather stays warm for longer.
How Long Do Baby Woodpeckers Stay in the Nest?
According to St. Vincent College, baby woodpeckers generally stay in the nest for about 3 weeks, but again, this may vary somewhat from species to species. With some species, they may stay for as long as a month.
Both parents work together to care for the young woodpeckers, incubating, feeding, and brooding them. Once the babies fledge for the first time, they may remain around the nest for another few weeks as they adjust and become more independent.
Check out this video to see what feeding time at a woodpecker’s nest typically looks like.
Conclusion
Woodpeckers build their nests inside hollowed-out areas of tree trunks and other wooden objects. In many cases, they build new nests every year, though some species will reuse their nests.
The male and female work together to raise their babies, which stay in the nest for 3 weeks to a month depending on the species.
So woodpeckers peck the wood to build their nests?
Yes, we watched the Woodpeckers that are currently in our tree. They hollowed out and pecked a hole in our tree. It goes very deep inside. It looked like we had new bark mulch when they were finished. The Mom and Dad worked together and removed the wood chips from deep inside of the hole just before the babies came.
Woodpeckers keep pecking holes in my cedar siding to build their nests. I fill them in and they peck holes somewhere else in the siding. If I just leave a few holes in the siding, will they stop pecking new holes and return to the same hole year after year? I live in South Florida.
Usually if you hang something on your house that is shiny or reflective it will deter the Woodpeckers from pecking holes into your house. I have seen people hang shiny ribbon or even old CD’s. I am not sure how well it works but it’s worth a try to save your house from the damage.
I just had some woodpeckers make a nest in an old dead tree by my house. The babies are flying around now. The tree is going to fall over and I have propped it up bc of them. I need to push it over bc it is dangerous. When can I do this so that I won’t affect the babies or the parents? Help!
Yes we have a per of green woodpeckers the man how lives there has been up the tree trying to stop ???? the woodpeckers but the hole ????️ with the woodpecker going in and is staying in there a long time so hopefully ???? the pair have laid eggs ????
We recently saved some baby woodpeckers and put it in a birdhouse. The parents have been flying around to feed them and the babies have started poking their heads out. We worry that the hole is not big enough for them to fletch out but we tried leaving the top open and they won’t come out so we closed it and are giving them time. How big do baby woodpecker get? Do you know the dimension of the hole the birdhouse needs to be? The parents seem to be northern wood peckers with red color heads.