Hi Tweets,

In answer to Elizabeth Noyes, who wrote:

>> I have sighted several Pileateds before, and I was wondering if there was
>> any known way of attracting them.

Robert Dunnell replied:

>try suet!

Which is a useful suggestion, but requiring some elaboration, as with suet
come both starlings and squirrels usually; both will hawg the stuff down as
fast as they can and the native birds don't get much chance. There's a type
of feeder, described below, which goes some distance to stymy them.

Double-rendered suet is preferable as it remains viable (doesn't rot) a lot
longer than single-rendered and stays solid at surprisingly high
temperatures. The double-rendered stuff is available from birdfeeding
stores--generally the best people to go to if you plan to feed birds: they
know a lot of stuff (sometimes counter-intuitive) that can save time, money
and, sometimes, the birds themselves--in fairly cheap cakes and bricks that
can be either straight suet or mixtures containing stuff like raisins
(sapsuckers love the sweet stuff), peanut cake, seed-mixtures. For
woodpeckers, a suet feeder which forces birds to feed directly upside down
while clinging to the bottom is best. The best type is a wooden roofed
version with a grilled space (1/4 in. mesh: small enough for woodpecker
bills to get to the food, but too small for squirrels' snouts) on the very
bottom with space for a suet cake. By itself, initially, the birds won't
know it's there to feed them as the food isn't visible. You can attract them
by putting some of the suet in a small pine cone, and hanging the cone a
foot or so below the feeder to get them used to the idea there's food at
that location, then remove the cone a couple-three days after they've
located it. The birds will return, and if they haven't already discovered
the suet in the feeder, will usually do so then.

If piggish starlings and squirrels aren't a problem, then an old wire
soap-dish attached firmly to the trunk of a tree makes a good woodpecker
feeder. You can buy feeders which have a similar grilled-type feeded
attached to a vertically hanging board with part of the board below the
feeder to support the woodpecker's tail.

>Once, though, I did see a young
> Pileated on the ground by my bird feeder, it was not apparent what he had
> been eating. When I looked soon after he had flown away, there was nothing
> but ordinary bird seed.

And that, probably, is what it was eating. Flickers, for example, will scarf
down gobs of millet and sunflower seeds. Given the choice, most woodpeckers
will gravitate to the suet: it's a higher-energy food than just about
anything including oil/black sunflower seed or the oil seed, Niger thistle.


Michael Price We aren't flying...we're falling with style!
Vancouver BC Canada -Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story
mprice at mindlink.net