If you want your boxes to be used by the woodpeckers, you will have to control the starlings and house sparrows. Even if one of your woodpeckers nests in one of the boxes, they are likely to be killed by the starlings. This page has some good information on trapping starlings and house sparrows. This site is quite extensive and has tons of good information.

Here is a link that might be useful: Trapping page

I was up in the woods today and happened to spot a male Redbelly woodpecker on the side of an old dead tree. A couple minutes later the female appeared. On closer inspection I discovered that they have a nesting hole in the tree, a mere 22" above the ground where the entrance is concealed by brush. There are no leaves on the small brush yet,but their is buds and no doubt within a couple weeks there will be enough leaves that the entrance to their hole will be completely concealed.

Thanks for the input. KENDRA2 Thanks for the link ... I will review the information. Thanks all.

You will need to trap and dispose of the HOSP and Starlings if you want anything else to successfully nest in your nestboxes. Since they are both non-native invasive species it is legal to get rid of adults/nests/eggs and young.

Donna

Since woodpeckers are primary cavity nesters, they are unlikely to use your boxes for nesting. I don't believe that HOSP is much a problem for woodpeckers, which should be able to successfully defend themselves with their strong beaks. The main problem for woodpeckers by far is habitat loss due to lack of dead trees. Then starlings, which compete with red-headed woodpeckers and flickers. Red-bellied woodpeckers are pretty assertive birds so I don't think starlings are as much of a problem for them. There is such a thing as a starling resistant flicker house, but again since woodpeckers are primary cavity nesters, I don't know how often they'd use one of those.

It is best to fill the boxes with sawdust if you want to encourage Woodpeckers but this doesn't always work either. As stated they are primary cavity nesters and prefer to excavate their own hole. Starlings will probably take over though. Thanks to the Emerald Ash Borer in Michigan there are so many dead ash trees it is sickening. It has not really made a difference in Woodpecker populations as far as I can tell so far.

I don't seem to have that much of a sparrow problem here. I have the kind of sparrows here that I iike, white throated sparrows. They are not considered as HOSP. Using the right kind of bird seed to control the sparrows would help. Also you might just have to take down your bird feeders for a spell. I take down a lot of my bird feeders in the later spring and summer and maybe keep one up and use bird seed that sparrows aren't supposed to like.

here in southwest colorado there have been lots of forest fires and there a thousands of acres of beetle kill forest so most of the woodpeckers nest in the dead tree areas of the mountins. when the snows get deep in the winter they migrate a matter of miles to the lower canyons or river corridors. so we get lots of woodpeckers here late fall to early spring but summers and fall most are in the mountains. The only woodpeckers to nest close to here have been a pair of lewis's woodpeckers in early spring and as soon as the young fledge they all head up into the forests.

OH man I sure miss Colorado! I lived in the foothills of Pikes Peak for 12 years!