Here at my Moscow Idaho home, I have western redcedar siding and Northern
Flickers, all coexisting fine. I've put up 6 nesting structures for
Violet-green Swallows and usually the flickers claim 2, beating the entrance
holes until they can get in. Taking that cue, I now, twice a year, put a
new piece of wood with a small hole over the top of the flicker hole. They
seem quite content to continually beat their way in and leave my siding
alone. In the winter, the birds use those boxes for roosting. I've also
found that stuffing the box with wood chips also seems to make them happy --
crazily tossing out the chips once they've worked out the hole.

Kas Dumroese
Moscow, ID
dumroese at iglide.net