Woodpeckers Wake Wellington: Residents Resort to Various Tactics to Keep the Birds at Bay

WELLINGTON, Fla. —  This neighborhood of freshly trimmed lawns and basketball hoops resembles the otherwise typical South Florida neighborhood. Except for one unusual addition: the preponderance of plastic owls.

Perched on the ledges of awnings and windows, fake owls have become a sought-after solution to the community’s persistent woodpecker problem – particularly in Olympia, a gated community. The owls have quickly become essential to the community’s efforts to protect their properties, hoping to ward off the woodpeckers that have been damaging homes. 

Woodpeckers are exactly like they sound: little pesky birds that drill into trees. However, neighbors in the Wellington community have noticed that wood isn’t the only thing they jab at, but the sides of their homes. 

“It’s been years,” says Margarita Lopez Chiclana, who was informed that the woodpeckers come in the springtime, but she has noticed them lingering beyond the season. Even after the spring, they continue to return, repeatedly damaging her home. “We’ve had people coming and filling the holes, and then they [woodpeckers] come back next year.”

Many homeowners find dealing with woodpeckers an ongoing challenge, as the birds often return despite various efforts to deter them. 

“Especially on the weekends, in my case, I would notice that they would always come back around the same time, go to the same part of the house, and peck at the gutters,” said Thomas Garland, Olympia resident since 2010. 

Although the repetitive behavior can annoy homeowners, it isn’t uncommon and is an integral part of birds’ natural instincts. 

“The most common woodpecker that you would get their [Wellington] is the red-bellied woodpecker, and those are pretty abundant, and maybe if it's a relatively new neighborhood, people planted trees, the trees are getting larger that they start moving in,” says Dr. Paul Gray, a staff scientist at Audubon Florida, a non-profit conservation organization focusing on birds and their habitats. 

Most residents have only reported being disrupted by the woodpeckers in the last two to three years. In 2010, the Village of Wellington built the Wellington Environmental Preserve. First, it was a rainwater storage area. Now, it features walking trails and a nature center and is a go-to spot for bird watching. 

An article posted by the Palm Beach Post in 2012 reported seeing “a noisy red-bellied woodpecker, with its black-and-white back and bright red cap,” while walking the grounds. According to experts like Dr. Gray, there are several reasons why the woodpeckers cause such a commotion.

“They peck on wood for a couple reasons; one is to find food,” says Dr. Gray. “They're looking for ants and other types of bugs.”

Birds eat seeds and fruits, but insects are their primary food source. Many small insects can be found in tree trunks, but they can also be on the insides of walls, making homes a target and a free buffet. 

“If they come to your house and you have wood siding, and they peck around and don’t find anything, they’ll leave and not come back. If they find bugs in there, they’re [going to] come back the next day and the next day because they’ve found food in there,” says Dr. Gray.

However, many residents are unconvinced that the woodpeckers’ persistence is due to insects.

“I don’t think so,” says Lopez Chiclana on whether she believes there are insects in the walls of her home. “We’ve had exterminators check all around the house.”

Even without the threat of insects, there is still the early morning and routine pecking, leaving homeowners puzzled. However, the tenacious rattling sound isn’t actually from the woodpeckers looking for food but for more territorial reasons. 

“That’s not the feeding,” says Dr. Gray on the noise coming from the birds early in the morning. “In the springtime when they’re doing their courtship…they drum [peck at wood] and the louder the better. That announces their territory.” 

Then, enter the fake plastic owls. A quick search on how to deter woodpeckers reveals numerous lists and videos prominently featuring fake owls as a top recommendation. Plastic owls have become a popular tactic in hopes of frightening the woodpeckers, although their effectiveness remains questionable.

“They may work for a little bit… [but] fake owls don’t really work,” says Dr. Gray. “If they’re perched on your house, you can stop that by putting up a piece of plastic; just hang a sheet of plastic, and they can’t land on it.” 

Proven true, many homeowners have realized that the owls don’t work. 

“The owl’s too big there,” says Garland, pointing to the gabled roof at the front of his home. 

“Some of the other neighbors have had owls and [the woodpeckers] poked holes right beside it, where this [metallic strips] has a reflection and is constantly moving…it scares the woodpeckers from coming back,” said Garland, who has had the metallic disks which he purchased from Amazon almost two years ago. 

“I didn’t hear anything,” said Alissa Matuszko, a frustrated Olympia homeowner since 2015. But two years after moving in, she repainted her house, only to wake up one morning and find paint chips and styrofoam scattered across her lawn. 

“You can sort of hear like a little bit of pecking, but you can’t hear it inside the house,” said Matuszko. “But, I just come out and see styrofoam everywhere.” 

Many neighbors have noticed that the decorative molding on homes throughout the community is made of styrofoam, making it a frequent target for woodpeckers drilling holes. The proposed solution? Covering the molding with a layer of cement.

”We are actually considering paying the money, like our other neighbor, to get a layer of cement,” said Matuszko. “It’s expensive, but we’ve probably already paid about that much just in hole repair.” 

Frustrated with ineffective solutions, Matuszko and several other residents in the Wellington community are exhausted by the plastic owls, metallic disks, and various failed DIY projects. 

In search of a more effective deterrent, some have turned to an “Ultrasonic Woodpecker Repeller.” This solar-powered device emits a deep-penetrating ultrasonic sound designed to “keep woodpeckers at bay.” 

“It doesn’t work either,” laughed Lopez Chiclana after speaking with a friend who bought one in hopes of finally finding the solution. 

Alternatively, when other methods fail, some neighbors have reported simply getting up and shooing the woodpeckers away.