Kamloops, B.C., group testing solutions to woodpecker damage on homes

Miles Purden started noticing woodpeckers taking aim at his home in North Kamloops in 2020. 

They were pecking at his concrete home and nesting in his walls.

"When they're ripping out the insulation, you get tiny bits of garbage floating around," he said. "It could really do a lot of very expensive damage."

He's tried all kinds of things to get them to stop — reflective tape, noise makers, decoy owls — but nothing was working.

So, he called up Curtis Houston, who owns a birding hobby shop in town. 

Houston says it's likely northern flickers causing the problem. They're slightly bigger than a robin, he said, and need a bigger space for nesting. 

"Compared to the other woodpeckers, they actually do have quite a weak bill, so they often rely on other abandoned nests from other birds like pileated woodpeckers."

Now, Purden and Houston have launched a survey of Kamloops residents dealing with woodpecker woes to find out what's working and what isn't. 

Why do they do this?

Ann Nightingale, a volunteer with the Rocky Point Bird Observatory on Vancouver Island, says woodpeckers drill holes because they're either trying to attract a mate or looking for food. 

In particular, when woodpeckers are pecking away at metal, she said, it's likely they're trying to get attention from the ladies. 

"The metal actually makes a lot better sound than most wood surfaces," she said. "It's kind of like high school, right? The boys who are the loudest, then they get the most attention from the girls."

If homeowners notice small holes or bigger areas that have been damaged, she said, it's probably because the birds have heard bugs in the walls and they're pecking for food. 

"If you have woodpeckers doing that, I would strongly suggest that you have someone come and have a look to see if you might have ants in your timbers."

Make it stop

Nightingale said people can try putting things in the way of the spots woodpeckers are returning to, or try a flicker box — a kind of birdhouse built specifically to cater to woodpeckers.

"But a real trick to this is to fill [the flicker box] up with wood chips," she said.  "If you just put an empty box there, [the birds] don't get the same satisfaction as if they'd thrown all the chips out."

But Houston said flicker boxes aren't always successful. 

Traditional flicker boxes, he said, often attract starlings that compete with woodpeckers for nesting space. 

"Starlings tend to have about a 60 per cent success rate in booting northern flickers out of their houses. Flickers lose that battle more than they win it," he said.

He's been working on a modified flicker box — a 25-centimetre by 46-centimetre box with an entrance hole on the top and a plastic dome covering that entrance, with serrated grooves along the front of the box for birds to cling to. 

"I was trying to come up with an idea that utilized the anatomy of the flicker to be able to climb up and into a cavity versus the natural defence of a cavity for a starling where they need to fly directly into the hole to get in."

But he and Purden realize there may be other methods that are more effective, which is why they've launched the survey. 

Ultimately, they hope to create a how-to guide with best practices for curbing bad bird behaviour based on what's worked specifically in Kamloops. 

"To any degree that we can lessen the problem will be an improvement," Purden said.