This weekend I had a flicker drumming on the vent cap on my house, which sounded like a jackhammer. I decided to put up a nest box to hopefully give them an alternative to hammering on the house or trying to nest under overhangs, etc. I wonder if the loss of trees from the windstorm has put pressure on the flickers this year, because I have never heard them drumming on the house in past years.
The floor area is about 5-1/2 x 7-1/2, and its about 24" from bottom to top. I filled it up with wood chips for the flickers to excavate (pine, not cedar, as I read cedar can irritate the chicks). The hole is 2 1/2" in dia. and is about 9 feet off the ground. I put up aluminum flashing around the tree to keep raccoons from getting an easy meal.
We'll see what happens. With luck I'll have a family of flickers this year, or at least encourage them not to use the house. Hopefully no starlings will try to take over the box.
I got a flicker couple hanging out in my yard today. They stayed for probably 10-15 minutes. The male flew off to a tree across the street, and the female followed. Last week I remember seeing three flickers chasing each other around the treetops, now it looks like these two have paired off. No evidence of the wood chips being excavated from the nest box yet
I also saw starlings in the neighborhood but none have approached my yard or the flicker nest box.
Found some woodchips on the ground beneath the nestbox. I suspect the flickers may be checking it out and starting excavation. I also found a large blossom from a bush several houses down the street on top of the nestbox. I wonder what put it there.
The flickers still visit the feeder but usually one at a time now. I was thinking that perhaps they've got a nest somewhere else, and one bird always remains with the nest while the other goes feeding. But in recent days there has been drumming on the house, and today I notice a flicker apparently trying to excavate under a neighbor's eaves. The tempo was slower than drumming which makes me think it's excavation. Nothing has removed any woodchips from the box in about 2 weeks. I'm not sure if they have a nest yet or not.
Definite signs of nest excavation yesterday and today. Lots of woodchips at the base of the tree. I'll keep an eye on it and if there are indications that they're serious about nesting there, I'll put a hardware cloth predator baffle around the entrance.
No signs of excavation in the past few weeks. The female flicker has been a regular visitor to the feeder, always alone. So they must have a nest somewhere and take shifts. I'm not sure why the male never visits. I did have a pileated woodpecker visit today and noticed a bunch of wood chips on the ground, I assume from the pileated just checking things out.
The flickers, male and female have only showed up one at a time for the past few weeks, but today they both showed up at once, but I didn't see any youngsters following them around. I'll keep my eyes open.