Woodpecker damage on coconut palm

[Brian]

Anyone get woodpecker damage like the holes in these photos?

[John2468]

Got smaller ones on Christmas palms.

[Hurricanepalms]

I have noticed woodpeckers doing the same thing to palms in my area as well. Some trees have hundreds of small holes and others 10ft away are completely untouched. I assumed the trees that were selected may have bugs inside them that the birds are after.  My comments pertaining to the damage on the Christmas palm not the coconut. 

Edited November 4, 2023 by Hurricanepalms

[Jim in Los Altos]

28 minutes ago, Hurricanepalms said:

I have noticed woodpeckers doing the same thing to palms in my area as well. Some trees have hundreds of small holes and others 10ft away are completely untouched. I assumed the trees that were selected may have bugs inside them that the birds are after.  My comments pertaining to the damage on the Christmas palm not the coconut. 

Woodpeckers are sapsuckers and will poke holes into healthy insect-free palms. A few of my large Archontophoenix have the telltale holes on their trunks. I’ve filled the holes with modeling clay. 

[Silas_Sancona]

22 minutes ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

Woodpeckers are sapsuckers and will poke holes into healthy insect-free palms. A few of my large Archontophoenix have the telltale holes on their trunks. I’ve filled the holes with modeling clay. 

" Sap Suckers " are actually a bit different than true,  insect eating Woodpeckers.. Species within the latter group, like Dryocopus pileatus, ( Pileated Woodpecker, common in FL. ) or Flickers, Genus Colaptes  typically don't consume sap..  Will consume ants attracted by sap though.

 

[Jim in Los Altos]

1 hour ago, Silas_Sancona said:

" Sap Suckers " are actually a bit different than true,  insect eating Woodpeckers.. Species within the latter group, like Dryocopus pileatus, ( Pileated Woodpecker, common in FL. ) or Flickers, Genus Colaptes  typically don't consume sap..  Will consume ants attracted by sap though.

 

I didn’t mean that woodpeckers are the same as sapsuckers. I meant that woodpeckers will punch holes in trees to “suck” sap. 

[Silas_Sancona]

Just now, Jim in Los Altos said:

I didn’t mean that woodpeckers are the same as sapsuckers. I meant that woodpeckers will punch holes in trees to “suck” sap. 

Not the insect / seed / fruit eaters, typically anyway.. Sapsuckers, Genus Sphyrapicus  are the only group of Woodpeckers that regularly consume sap.

From iNaturalist / Wiki:

Sapsuckers / Sphyrapicus.  Only other group of Woodpeckers that contain species that regularly consume sap is Melanerpes, which includes Acorn, and Lewis's, the only two species in this group that are common in CA. Both are insect / seed consumers.



Group Dryobates.. Which includes some of the smaller common Woodpeckers like Nuttall's, Hairy, Downy, and Ladder-Backed  are occasional / rare consumers of sap.



Pileated:




Gila:



Flickers / Colaptes:


 

[Brian]

Next time I see it I’ll try to get a photo and post it. One of them use to peck on our UPVC windows all day long. It got to the point where I thought it was going to damage the window. My 10 year old nephew told me that our cat Concha would scare the woodpecker away but that it was too high up. That gave me the idea to take a photo of Concha, print it and tape it to the window. That woodpecker never pecked on that window again. People would ask me why I have a picture of our cat taped to the window and I’d tell them the story. 
The photo that scared the woodpecker away, 
 

[SeanK]

13 minutes ago, Brian said:

Next time I see it I’ll try to get a photo and post it. One of them use to peck on our UPVC windows all day long. It got to the point where I thought it was going to damage the window. My 10 year old nephew told me that our cat Concha would scare the woodpecker away but that it was too high up. That gave me the idea to take a photo of Concha, print it and tape it to the window. That woodpecker never pecked on that window again. People would ask me why I have a picture of our cat taped to the window and I’d tell them the story. 
The photo that scared the woodpecker away, 
 

👍<cat>

Edited November 4, 2023 by SeanK

[Jim in Los Altos]

14 hours ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Not the insect / seed / fruit eaters, typically anyway.. Sapsuckers, Genus Sphyrapicus  are the only group of Woodpeckers that regularly consume sap.

From iNaturalist / Wiki:

Sapsuckers / Sphyrapicus.  Only other group of Woodpeckers that contain species that regularly consume sap is Melanerpes, which includes Acorn, and Lewis's, the only two species in this group that are common in CA. Both are insect / seed consumers.



Group Dryobates.. Which includes some of the smaller common Woodpeckers like Nuttall's, Hairy, Downy, and Ladder-Backed  are occasional / rare consumers of sap.



Pileated:




Gila:



Flickers / Colaptes:


 

I don’t want to argue but, when Googled, this information puts Sapsuckers in the Woodpecker family. 
 

[Silas_Sancona]

15 minutes ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

I don’t want to argue but, when Googled, this information puts Sapsuckers in the Woodpecker family. 
 

No worries, and definitely not an argument..

Yes, that is correct, Sapsuckers are technically Woodpeckers, but are the only " Woodpeckers " that regularly consume sap.. Any birder would keep the two separate, ..using Sap -Sucker ( ..Really should be called " Sap Lickers, since they use bristly tongues to lap up the stuff,  rather than use their beaks to suck it, like drinking something through a straw .. )  to describe that group, vs calling them woodpeckers ...even though they're both within the overall " group " of  " wood-piercing"  birds..  

Since they'll peck at bark to get to insects under or hidden within it, Nuthatches could be called Woodpeckers in a generalist " bird that pierces woody plant material "  blanket term,  but technically are not ...are more closely related to Gnatcatchers and the Troglodytidae,  ..Wrens. 




 

[Calosphace]

Yeah Nathan is right, these woodpeckers are eating bugs inside the palm. I have several Sabal that attract attention for the same reason and have for many years if not decades. One hosts a Carpenter ant colony which is a favored treat of Pieleated woodpeckers

Yellow-bellied sapsuckers make many tiny holes in a grid-like pattern. I'm also not even sure if they are capable of "tapping" palm sap like they do certain Eudicot trees due to the radically different anatomy of a palm trunk. I have not heard of people tapping "syrup" from palms either.

At least palms cannot be girdled so I've never been concerned about it personally.  I have an Acer rubra that gets hit pretty hard by the sapsuckers when they arrive in winter and I might have to eventually put small plates up to block off certain areas to prevent girdling, I think it being the sole maple surrounded by mostly lawns makes it more heavily trafficked than it would be in-habitat where the foraging would be dispersed more evenly across multiple trees.

Drumming behavior is different and is probably what was happening to the window. It is how they mark territories, clearly your window must've made a lovely sound to the woodpecker LOL
great thinking with the cat picture!