if this tree is overhanging a house.. or anything valuable ... it most likely needs to go ... it is a severe danger to you and your stuff .. and perhaps the neighbors.. but that would depend if you like them ..... see above about a local trained professional .. and to be clear.. not every monkey with a chainsaw is a trained asa cert'd professional of course.. if you already know the answer ... and were just hoping we came up with another answer .... then all you need is an INSURED monkey with a chainsaw.. and be done with this nightmare .... i totally agree .. that there is something significantly.. structurally .... wrong with the interior of the tree.. for the pecker of wood to do that ... it needs to go ... and now that giant holes have been introduced.. its going to rot even faster than it probably was .... ken

I think you are right with the yellow-bellied sapsucker guess, and because of its size, it must be a young one. The fluffiness does make them look different! But the red on the crown and throat is there, the messy black and white on the back, and the white stripe down the side is there I think, although hard to see because of the fluff. I am only a very new backyard birder and used the Cornell Lab site to check this out. I hope I've been helpful!

Oh thank you so much Susan, you are soooo good. You'll be in my prayers tonight !!!

I feel your pain. We had the same problem. It got so bad that I contacted the audobon society to ask what I could do. The first thing they told me was "it is illegal to kill a woodpecker" DARN!!!! We purchased something called bird-x. It is a recording of animal noises that keeps the woodpeckers away. It is loud, obnoxius, and expensive but it did the trick. As a matter of fact, the audabon society told me to tent my house. Yeah, right 3800 sq feet house and they want me to tent it....next they told me to hang aluminum foil strips along the roof line and it would scare them. My neighbors would have loved that in my gated community! OY. I know that bird-x is expensive, but it really did work. Also, someone told us to put poison inside the old holes with peanut butter....but we did not do that...but you may want to ;) Good luck to you.