Tips to Attract Pileated Woodpeckers It takes some efforts to entice this large woodpecker to nest or roost, but what a spectacular reward! 1. In the wild, the bird uses tree cavities for nesting and roosting. They require the availability of 5-10 cavities in their vital space. The bird will decide if and how to use the box you provide. 2. Woodpeckers create roosting space by excavating rotting, weakened trees. Make them feel like the box you provide is "their idea" by filling it entirely with wood chips, and blocking the entrance with old tree bark or some other material. Nesting cavities are excavated differently, in wood that is not quite as rotted as for roosts. Eggs are nearly always laid in a newly excavated hole. If you are succesful and woodpeckers use your box for nesting, they not likely to use it again to raise another family, but they will use it to roost. 3. Securely fasten the box as high as you can on a tree of >30 cm diameter at breast height. This is a good time to put that 6 m ladder (aka the twenty-foot-ladder) to good use. 4. Biologists have found that woodpecker entrances are more often found facing east, on an eastward leaning tree. 5. Favored tree species include Maples, Oaks and Hickory. 6. It greatly helps if you have observed them in your neighborhood.