I’ve seen a female Red-bellied Woodpecker clamor into this hole a couple times this winter. She announces herself loudly when she arrives, looks into the hole, looks around outside, and then just pops right out of sight. This has been happening 20-45 minutes before sunset. It may be one of several night roosts for her.
The tree is a London Plane, a very common street tree here in New York (as in many European cities). Platanus × acerifolia (also known as Platanus × hispanica) is a hybrid between P. orientalis and P. occidentalis, a tough little love-child able to tolerate compacted soil and bad air, thus becoming the city tree par excellence. This one isn’t in great shape. It used to host the local American Kestrels. They stashed food in other holes on the branches, and perched upon a bare, straight-up vertical post of a branch, since knocked down in a storm.
Backyard and Beyond 
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