Question about woodpeckers...

HI all--quick question: last summer I noticed that I had a male red-bellied WP and a male downy WP in my yard. I saw them together most days, or if one was nearby, the other invariably made an appearance. When I write "together" I mean usually in the same tree or at least side-by-side trees, and they appeared to follow each other. I noted their behavior and wrote it off as coincidence. But these two stayed around through fall, winter and now spring. Just the two of them, and they are almost always together. No sign of any females or fledglings. Anyone else noticed this? Thanks in advance!

Beth in Atlanta

Hi Beth, I haven't noticed it myself but I only have 1 woodpecker (a female Hairy) that is w/out at mate or at least I haven't seen the mate.

Thanks pelletory! I hope that both these two boys can find a mate this year. There may be females in the area, but I sit on my front porch frequently and haven't seen any. But I see these two together every day, and always together. I guess they are sharing space and foraging together. Better to have a friend than not, I guess....

Haven't seen anything like that, that does sound strange! We have the Red-bellies, Downy's and Hairy's that come to our yard and we get males & femalesl.

Sounds like one of those stories where a duck falls in love with a cow!

I know it's not a bird picture, but the story reminds me of this…

Thanks for the photo Mrs_Ed! Too cute! Still no signs of females for either of my two WP guys. But...they are still hanging out together. Saw them yesterday afternoon at my suet feeder. The downy flew in and the red-bellied waited on the oak tree 10 ft away, downy flew to tree, red-bellied had some suet--then they both flew away--together-- to a maple tree at the back of my yard. More as it happens....

I had a hairy and a downy (both males) hanging out like that over the winter which I thought was odd. I usually see pairs of woodpeckers even in the winter. Once the weather turned, the hairy disappeared and I have a downy pair now nesting nearby....don't know if it is the male from the winter though. It is clearly breeding season for you, Beth....hope your bachelors hook up soon!

I thought I'd post this here just because the thread title.

What can I feed my woodpeckers now that it's getting warm and the suet will go rancid? They are munching on the peanut silo, but I'm wondering what else to do for them. Right now I only have downies.

Hi Mrs Ed. I see mine using the Peanut Silo along with the No Melt Suet.

Mine will eat BOSS out of the tray & platform feeders, along with the peanuts.

Same here, mine love sunflower seeds but right now I'm having a Grackle/Starling problem so my Red-bellied Woodpeckers have pretty much been staying with the two I previously mentioned.
My Hairy Woodpecker has only been using the Peanut Silo and the

Downy Woodpecker uses suet mainly and sometimes the peanut silo.

Do they eat cut up fruit? I've been seeing those posts of the Redbellies munching on the oranges.

No melt suet? So that's safe in the summer? Doesn't spoil?

Right. I posted the recipe for the no-melt suet in this DG article: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/467/

Geeze Jill, is there anything you DON'T know???

Thanks Critter, Thats the one I make! I also added cayenne pepper to it hoping to deter squirrels but it didn't help so I just hung it from the baffled pole.

Birds love it! I've tried it w/ raisins and or seeds,nuts.

Tons! LOL But my dad gave me that great recipe (from a newspaper clipping) years ago, so I stuck it in that article.

Mostly I lurk on this forum... but every so often I find something useful I can jump in with! :-)

so even though it has lard in it, it doesn't go rancid?

I think we have almost the same recipe in the Sticky; it came from something called Grandmas Recipes I believe.

Years ago, when my Mom made suet in the summer she cut it into 2 finger wide strips and put these "fingers" into the feeders. That way it was always fresh (lil Nan had to replenish them pretty often).

Update on my two 'bachelor' WPs: I noticed an immature red-bellied WP at the feeder yesterday morning! Can't tell if the immature WP and the mature male are related, but I'm guessing they are. I've also seen at least 2 female downies in the last few days, so I have high hopes for my bachelor downy as well.

I use peanut silos for the WPs in the summer. I have one on the end of my front porch and all the WPs seem to like it. I also feed suet but it seems like the WPs prefer the peanuts more at this time of year. I think my oak tree actually is more peanut than tree now.

Guess they may have had some company after all!! Great news!

I've put out some WP nesting boxes; I hope that will also help. Problem is the Starlings--good thing for the WPs is that the Starlings prefer my EAVES for their nesting this year. Good for the WPs, VERY bad for me (now I have a leak in my roof and brown spots on the ceiling--that ceiling was just replaced a year ago!). Oh well, the things we will do for our birds...and squirrels, and rabbits, and turtles......

ACK!