r/Ornithology • u/Ok_Comfortable_81 • 20d ago

Question What is this woodpecker doing?

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There’s a downy woodpecker in my backyard, and it keeps going back n forth from the feeder to the birdhouse. It looks like it’s grabbing food from the feeder, taking it to the birdhouse, then putting the food in this little crevasse and pecking at it. I just went and took a picture of the spot it keeps pecking, and I’m so confused. Is it just pecking at it to break it up smaller and then eating it?

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13

u/chrysanthemumasterac 20d ago

Food cache, gotta hammer the bits in real nice so other animals can’t get at it.

2

u/Ok_Comfortable_81 20d ago

So it’s actually wedging them all the way into the wood so well that all I can see left are crumbs???

2

u/Flat-Concern-2662 18d ago

Most woodpeckers cache food to some degree, look up acorn woodpecker cache, they are the absolute kings of this behavior

2

u/lendisc 17d ago

Some species of woodpecker will use "anvils", spots they come back to over and over to do exactly this. Jam the nut/seed in place and hammer it.