Red-headed Woodpecker
Mdf, GFDL

Want to attract woodpeckers to your wildlife porch, patio, deck, or balcony?

If a species of woodpecker is in your area, the easiest way to attract is to provide their preferred food in certain feeders.

Quick Tip

If you live in an area that's heavily wooded, you'll find it much easier to attract woodpeckers.

Quick Start

Hang a suet feeder containing a suet-peanut mix from a railing hook or from the ceiling of your outdoor space.

What to Feed Woodpeckers

A woodpecker's diet usually consists of insects like ants, moths, grasshoppers, spiders, and wasps, and fruits like apple, currant, and serviceberry.

From a feeder, most woodpeckers will eat suet, nuts (especially peanuts), sunflower seed, corn, and fruit.

The Pileated Woodpecker focuses on insects and so is an unlikely feeder visitor.

What Kind of Feeder?

Just about any feeder will work; in fact, I've seen the larger Northern Flicker bend in half to get a sunflower seed from a caged tube feeder.

Northern Flicker Natures Pic's

However, upside-down suet feeders, peanut logs (example), and peanut feeders are targetted more to woodpeckers than other feeders, and platform feeders make it easier for woodpeckers to feed.

What Kind of Birdhouse?

Without large trees around, attracting woodpeckers to a birdhouse may be problematic. Some kinds of woodpecker will only nest in large trees.

However, if you want to encourage woodpeckers to nest, the kind of nest box you should provide depends on what kind of woodpecker you're trying to attract. Some woodpeckers will not nest in man-made birdhouses.

Woodpecker Houses for Purchase

• Downy Woodpecker House
• Northern Flicker House
• Three Woodpecker House

Woodpecker Birdhouse Plans

• Downy Woodpecker
• Hairy Woodpecker
• Flickers and Lewis Woodpeckers
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Red-headed and Golden-fronted Woodpeckers

Common Woodpeckers in North America

Downy Woodpecker Wolfgang Wander, GFDL

The U.S. has 22 species of woodpecker's, according to Sibley's. All have chisel-like bills and stiff tails and are generally found in wooded areas.

Hairy Woodpecker
Mdf, GFDL

Three woodpeckers are found across North America: the Downy Woodpecker, the Hairy Woodpecker, and the larger, polka-dotted Northern Flicker. Several others can be found in most of the East, like the Pileated and Red-headed Woodpecker.

In the west, in fragmented and much smaller ranges, one can find other woodpeckers (e.g., Lewis's Woodpecker, Red-naped Sapsucker).

The Three-toed and Black-backed Woodpecker are more likely to be seen in Canada than the U.S.