The woodpeckers that are doing the rapping on the medal usually are male woodpeckers and they are marking their territory and letting the males and the females know that " I am here, this is my territory and I am ready if you are"!

Sometimes they are making the holes for nesting purposes, but they also make the holes for bugs to crawl into and then the woodpeckers check the holes out every 2 days for food(bugs). Sometimes when the woodpeckers nest and their eggs hatch and the baby birds can fly, the parents chase them out of the nest and won't even let them feed within a 1/2 mile from where they were born for 1 year. Then the next nesting season the adults and the children return to where they where born to have their babies. Sometimes black birds take over these holes and nest also.