Bird Control

Woodpecker Damage to New York Homes: Why They're Drilling and How to Stop Them

June 20, 2025·12 min read

If you have a woodpecker drilling into the siding of your New York home, you are dealing with a wildlife situation that is fundamentally different from raccoons in your attic or pigeons on your ledge. Woodpeckers are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). You cannot trap them, relocate them, or harm them — under any circumstances, without a federal depredation permit that is nearly impossible to obtain for property damage alone. The entire approach to woodpecker problems must be deterrence and exclusion, not removal. And solving the problem permanently usually requires understanding — and addressing — why the woodpecker chose your house in the first place.

This guide covers the three behaviors that cause woodpecker damage, the critical connection between woodpecker drilling and carpenter bee or carpenter ant infestations, the species most commonly responsible for New York home damage, and the deterrence methods that actually work.

The Three Reasons Woodpeckers Drill Into Your House

Not all woodpecker drilling is the same, and understanding which behavior you are dealing with is essential for choosing the right response:

1. Foraging

Foraging is the most destructive category of woodpecker damage. The bird detects insects inside your siding, fascia, or structural wood — either by sound (tapping and listening) or by smell — and excavates to reach them. Foraging holes are characteristically irregular in shape, follow the path of insect galleries beneath the surface, and can remove large sections of siding quickly. A woodpecker following a carpenter bee gallery or a carpenter ant column through cedar siding can strip a section of boards in a single season.

If you have foraging damage, there are almost certainly insects inside that wood. The woodpecker is a symptom of an underlying infestation. Deterring the woodpecker without addressing the insects is a temporary fix — the bird, or another woodpecker, will return to the same food source.

2. Drumming

Drumming is territorial and mating behavior, concentrated in early spring (typically March through May in New York State). The woodpecker selects a resonant surface — metal chimney caps, aluminum gutters, LP SmartSide panels, cedar shakes, or wooden fascia boards — and drums rapidly to broadcast its presence to rivals and potential mates. The individual drumming sequences are rapid (8 to 20 strikes per second), brief, and often repeated from the same location multiple times per morning.

Drumming rarely causes structural damage — the bird is not trying to penetrate the surface — but the noise is highly disruptive, often beginning at first light between 5 and 6am. On metal surfaces, drumming causes no physical damage. On wood, repeated drumming in the same spot can eventually penetrate softer materials. Drumming behavior typically resolves naturally within a few weeks as breeding activity concludes, but deterrents can shorten the duration significantly.

3. Nesting

Some woodpecker species excavate nest cavities in wood. In New York homes, this is less common than foraging or drumming, but does occur — particularly in homes with large dead trees nearby or in homes with significantly deteriorated wood siding that resembles dead tree structure. Nesting cavities are round, smoothly excavated holes distinctly different in appearance from the ragged foraging damage. They are most commonly found in siding adjacent to large trees and in wooden structural elements that have begun to decay.

The Federal Protection Issue: Why Removal Is Not an Option

Every woodpecker species in North America is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, a federal statute that prohibits the pursuit, hunting, taking, capturing, killing, or possession of any migratory bird without authorization. This protection is absolute and applies regardless of the damage being caused. The MBTA does not recognize property damage as a basis for lethal control — a federal depredation permit is required, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service issues such permits for woodpeckers only in extraordinary circumstances, typically involving documented public health risk or repeated failure of all other management approaches.

This means that any individual or company that offers to kill or trap and relocate woodpeckers for you in New York is offering to commit a federal crime. The penalties under the MBTA are substantial — up to $15,000 in fines per violation for commercial operators.

Wildlife NY handles all woodpecker situations within the legal parameters of the MBTA — through deterrence, physical exclusion, and addressing the underlying structural and insect conditions that attract woodpecker activity. This is not a limitation — it is the approach that actually produces lasting results.

The Carpenter Bee Connection: The Most Important Point

If you have a woodpecker aggressively foraging into cedar siding, cedar fascia, LP SmartSide panels, or deck boards on your New York home, there is one fact you need to understand above all others: where woodpeckers are foraging into wood, carpenter bees are almost certainly present.

Carpenter bees (Xylocopa virginica) are large, black and yellow bees common throughout New York State that bore perfectly round half-inch diameter entrance holes into unpainted or weathered wood. Female carpenter bees excavate galleries running with the grain of the wood — sometimes extending a foot or more — where they lay eggs and provision larvae with pollen. The larvae develop through the summer and overwinter in the galleries as pupae or adults.

Woodpeckers — particularly downy woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers, and red-bellied woodpeckers — learn to locate and excavate carpenter bee galleries to feed on the fat-rich larvae. Once a woodpecker has identified your siding as a food source, it will systematically probe the entire affected surface, following carpenter bee galleries from entrance to larval chamber. The damage from this foraging can be extensive, and the woodpecker will return to the same structure in subsequent years as long as carpenter bees continue using the wood.

The permanent solution requires two components: eliminating the carpenter bee infestation (through fall treatment of galleries followed by wood replacement or filling with wood putty sealed with exterior paint), and applying deterrents or physical barriers to prevent woodpeckers from accessing the remaining wood during and after remediation. Addressing only one component produces temporary results.

Common Woodpecker Species in New York State

New York is home to several woodpecker species, and understanding which species is causing your problem helps determine the appropriate response:

• Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens): The smallest and most common woodpecker in New York, present in suburban yards throughout Nassau County, Westchester, and all five boroughs. Frequently responsible for both drumming (on metal and wood surfaces) and carpenter bee larva foraging in siding. Small size means damage is typically less severe than larger species.
• Hairy Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus): Larger than the downy, with similar habitat and behavior. More capable of significant foraging damage due to greater bill strength. Common in wooded suburban areas of Westchester, Rockland, and Nassau/Suffolk Counties.
• Red-Bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus): A medium-large woodpecker that has expanded its range northward into New York over the past several decades. Common in mature suburban neighborhoods throughout Long Island and Westchester. Responsible for foraging damage in carpenter bee-infested cedar siding and drumming on resonant surfaces.
• Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus): A large, distinctive woodpecker that, unlike most species, forages extensively on the ground for ants. The northern flicker is a key indicator of carpenter ant infestations — a flicker drilling into your siding or foundation is almost certainly following carpenter ant galleries. Flicker damage is typically larger and more rectangular than other species and occurs lower on building walls than other woodpecker damage.
• Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus): The largest woodpecker in North America — crow-sized, with a distinctive red crest — the pileated is present in wooded areas of Westchester County, the Hudson Valley, and Rockland County. Pileated woodpeckers excavate large, characteristic rectangular cavities while following carpenter ant galleries in dead and decaying wood. When a pileated attacks a structure, the damage is immediately apparent and can be severe. Pileated activity on your home is a strong indicator of a significant carpenter ant infestation in structural framing or attached dead wood.

Deterrence Methods That Work

Legal deterrence for woodpecker damage combines several approaches, recognizing that no single method provides long-term protection at all sites:

• Reflective deterrents: Mylar flash tape, reflective pinwheels, and holographic bird-scare balloons create visual disturbance that woodpeckers find threatening. Newly placed reflective deterrents are effective but woodpeckers habituate within two to four weeks. These must be moved frequently to different positions near the affected area to maintain effectiveness.
• Physical netting: Installing hardware cloth (1/2-inch galvanized mesh) or bird netting over the affected siding section, held 3 inches away from the surface, prevents physical access to the wood. This is the most durable deterrence method and is most effective when the netting covers the full affected area with no gaps at edges. Properly installed netting can remain effective for multiple seasons.
• Predator decoys with movement: Owl effigies that spin or bob in wind, or plastic hawks on extendable poles, maintain effectiveness longer than stationary decoys. They must be relocated every few days to prevent habituation.
• Address the underlying infestation: Treatment for carpenter bees in fall (when larvae are present in galleries) and replacement of severely damaged wood with fiber cement siding or PVC trim board — which woodpeckers cannot penetrate — eliminates the food source driving foraging behavior. This is the permanent solution for foraging damage specifically.
• Fiber cement or PVC replacement siding: LP SmartSide and engineered wood siding products are susceptible to woodpecker damage in the same way cedar is. Replacement with James Hardie fiber cement board or cellular PVC trim permanently eliminates the substrate that woodpeckers can excavate. The upfront cost is higher but the solution is permanent.

Geographic Specifics for New York

Woodpecker damage patterns vary by region across New York State based on both housing stock characteristics and local woodpecker species distribution:

• Westchester County: The mature residential tree canopy throughout Westchester — White Plains, Scarsdale, Bronxville, Ardsley, and surrounding communities — provides habitat for red-bellied and hairy woodpeckers that then target the cedar-sided colonials and Tudors common in the county. The combination of mature oak trees (producing heavy carpenter bee populations in adjacent wood structures) and high woodpecker density makes Westchester one of the highest-pressure regions for woodpecker damage in New York.
• Nassau County: The dense suburban lot pattern throughout Nassau County with ornamental trees supports large downy and red-bellied woodpecker populations. Nassau's significant stock of LP SmartSide and engineered wood-sided homes from 1990s to 2010s construction is particularly vulnerable — these products are attractive to carpenter bees and susceptible to woodpecker damage in a way that vinyl siding is not.
• Suffolk County: The cedar-shake cottage architecture throughout the Hamptons and South Shore communities — Hampton Bays, Westhampton, Remsenburg, and Fire Island communities — is highly vulnerable to woodpecker damage. Cedar shakes provide ideal carpenter bee habitat, and the resulting woodpecker activity on unprotected shakes can require significant siding replacement. Fire Island communities with seasonal-only occupation are particularly susceptible because damage accumulates unnoticed between visits.
• Hudson Valley and Rockland/Orange County: Rural and semi-rural residential properties in the Hudson Valley corridor — Rockland County, Orange County, and the lower Hudson Valley — see pileated woodpecker pressure that is rare in more densely suburban areas. Pileated activity on these properties typically indicates significant carpenter ant galleries in adjacent dead trees or in structural wood, and warrants a concurrent structural pest assessment.

When to Call a Wildlife Professional

You should contact a licensed wildlife professional for woodpecker damage when: the damage is severe enough that siding integrity or water resistance is compromised; when you suspect an underlying carpenter bee or carpenter ant infestation that requires concurrent treatment as part of the solution; when you need proper installation of exclusion netting and physical deterrents over affected siding sections; or when the pattern of damage suggests a structural pest issue — particularly pileated woodpecker activity, which almost always indicates a significant carpenter ant colony in structural wood. Wildlife NY provides comprehensive assessment of woodpecker damage including evaluation of underlying insect conditions and professional deterrent installation across Westchester, Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, and New York City. Call (516) 447-4673 to schedule an inspection.

Frequently Asked Questions