This pine is dead, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t provide a home for fungi, many an invertebrate, and an active red-tailed hawk nest. These holes attest to the various boring insects that have been pecked out by woodpeckers up and down the trunk. 
Wing of a woodpecker that met an untimely end. Looks too big for a Downy Woodpecker, so maybe it’s a Hairy Woodpecker, but Red-bellied Woodpecker and Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker also possible. The only thing it definitely isn’t is the Northern Flicker, which has yellow-shafted wings in our part of the country. (That’s right, folks, there are five species of woodpeckers in the city, with an occasional Red-headed Woodpecker passing through.)
Speaking of Flickers — and best to end on a life-affirming note — there’s a nesting Flicker in here. I’ve never come across a Flicker nest in Prospect Park before this spring, although they are known to nest here.
Woodpecker Sign
3 responses to “Woodpecker Sign”
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Very cool post, Matthew – life & death & life in the woodpecker world. How do you know a flicker is nesting in that hole? Have you seen it? Or is there something else that tells you? Up here in the north country of Morningside Heights, I’ve seen hairies, downies, flickers & red-bellies. And I often hear them working away, even when I can’t see them.
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I saw the female in there. In fact, if you look very closely at the picture: that horizontal black line just visible in the hole is part of the bird’s bill.
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I have a variety of woodpeckers in my Ozark forest, included the pileated, but I don’t recall ever seeing a flicker.
Backyard and Beyond 
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