“A downy woodpecker weighs less than a letter. On a ten-degree night, he burns through almost everything he ate that day.” — Why a seventy-two-year-old Pennsylvania lineman is letting go of his last woodpecker feeders at a special price before the coldest months arrive.

Six Degrees at Dawn. One Tiny Bird. And Fifteen Hours of Darkness Behind Him.

At 6:40 on a January morning, the thermometer on Hank Harmon’s porch in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, read six degrees. A downy woodpecker was already at the maple by his kitchen window. It had been dark for fifteen hours.

“That little guy weighs about as much as a letter,” Hank says. “On a night like that, he burns most of the fat he put on the day before. By morning he’s running on empty. He has to eat, and he has to eat right now.”

Hank stood at the window with his coffee and watched the bird eat for forty minutes. He didn’t move until it was done.

The Birds That Stay Behind When Everyone Else Flies South

Robins and orioles leave in the fall. Woodpeckers don’t. They stay through every ice storm and every cold snap, in the same small patch of woods, all winter long.

They live on bugs hidden in wood: beetles and grubs under the bark of old and dead trees. In winter, those bugs are locked inside frozen wood. And the old trees are disappearing, too. People cut them down because they look untidy or might fall on the house.

Hank knows all of this firsthand. He saw it from forty feet up.

He Repaired Hundreds of Poles Woodpeckers Had Drilled. He Never Once Blamed Them.

From 1973 to 2009, Hank was a telephone lineman in Tioga County. That meant thirty-six years of climbing wooden poles, with steel spikes on his boots and a thick leather belt around his waist.

Many of those poles were full of holes. Pileated woodpeckers, the big ones with the red crest, had drilled into them looking for food and shelter. Hank replaced more than two hundred of them.

“People called them pests. I never did. They went after my poles because somebody cut down their trees. A pole was the closest thing to a dead tree they could find.”— Hank Harmon

While he worked, he watched them. And he noticed something that almost every feeder in the store gets wrong.

A Woodpecker Doesn’t Eat With His Beak First. He Eats With His Tail.

A woodpecker never sits like a sparrow. It grabs the wood with its toes and leans back on its stiff tail feathers. The tail holds it in place, so the body can swing forward and peck.

“That tail is his safety belt,” Hank says. “He leans back on it the same way I leaned back on mine. Take it away, and he can’t work.”

On a normal wire suet cage, there is nothing under the bird. Its tail hangs in the air. It has to hold on with its toes alone, which costs energy it doesn’t have to spare. Often it gives up after a few bites.

So Hank Built a Feeder With Something to Lean On

When Hank retired in 2009, he started building suet feeders in his garage. Under each suet cage he added a wooden board, about as long as a woodpecker’s tail, with grooves cut across it like tree bark.

The first one went up on his own maple that December. Two days later, a red-bellied woodpecker landed, leaned back on the board and ate for ten minutes.

“Ten minutes,” Hank says. “On my old cage feeder, he’d grab two bites and leave.”

In sixteen years, Hank has built about 1,400 of them, for neighbors, for his church and for the Saturday market in Wellsboro.

Why Woodpeckers Stay for Minutes Instead of Seconds

The Old Belt That Still Hangs by the Workbench

Hank’s garage smells of wood stain and beef suet. A woodstove ticks in the corner. And on a nail next to the workbench hangs his old lineman’s belt. The leather on the back is worn smooth from thirty-six years of leaning against poles.

Hank spaced the grooves on every tail board to match the notches on that belt.

“That belt kept me on the pole for thirty-six years. The board does the same job for him. I just made it out of wood.”— Hank Harmon

“I Held On to Poles My Whole Life. Now I Can’t Hold a Router Steady.”

For sixteen winters, Hank’s mornings looked the same. Coffee at the window. Count the woodpeckers. Then out to the garage, with the radio on and the stove going. That is what he will miss most.

But thirty-six years of climbing and gripping have caught up with him. He has arthritis in both thumbs and has had two surgeries on his right shoulder. Cutting the wood still works. Cutting the grooves does not. The router has to be held perfectly still, and his hands won’t do it anymore.

“I held on to poles my whole life,” he says. “Now I can’t hold a router steady for ten seconds.”

“The Woodpeckers Can’t Pay. So I Won’t Ask Much.”

At the Wellsboro market, Hank’s feeders sold for $85. He could ask that again. He won’t.

“I don’t want these sitting in a box in my garage,” he says. “I want every one of them on a tree this winter, with a woodpecker leaning on it. That’s all I’m after.”

So he set a low farewell price. Whoever takes one of his last feeders keeps a woodpecker fed through the cold months, the way Hank did for sixteen winters.

Hank doesn’t own a computer. This summer his daughter Linda, a nurse in Harrisburg, photographed the last feeders and found a small online shop, Cedar & Tin, to ship them. “Linda does the computer part,” Hank says. “I do the tape and the boxes.”

What Bird Lovers Say About Hank’s Feeder

• ★★★★★

  “My old wire feeder only got starlings and a woodpecker that never stayed. Hank’s feeder has had a hairy woodpecker on it every morning since the first week. He just leans back and eats.”

  – Gary P., Erie, PA
• ★★★★★

  “Refilling is so easy. Lift the lid, drop the cake in, done. I do it in my slippers in January.”

  – Joan T., Binghamton, NY
• ★★★★★

  “I bought one for my father after his hip surgery. He can see it from his chair. Now he calls me every day with a woodpecker report.”

  – Michelle D., Akron, OH

“Give a Woodpecker Something to Lean On, and He Will Stay”

Diane Hollister taught biology in Tioga County for 31 years and has helped with local winter bird counts for over two decades. She took a close look at Hank’s feeder.

“Woodpeckers are built to brace against a trunk with their tail. Most suet feeders leave the tail hanging in the air, so the bird works harder just to hold on. A tail board gives it back its natural stance. In winter, when every bite counts, that matters.”— Diane Hollister, retired biology teacher and bird count volunteer

Questions About Hank’s Feeder

Where can I buy Hank’s feeder?

Only on this page, through Cedar & Tin. Hank’s feeders are not sold on Amazon or in any store.

How long will they be available?

Only while the last batch lasts. Right now there are 61 feeders left. When they are gone, Hank will not make any more.

What if the woodpeckers don’t come?

You have 30 days to try it. If you are not happy, send a short email and you get your money back. No risk, no hassle.

• ★★★★★

  “Hung it on the old oak out back in October. By December a downy, a red-bellied and a pair of nuthatches were taking turns.”

  – Barbara L., Scranton, PA
• ★★★★★

  “You can tell it was built by someone who has watched a lot of woodpeckers. That little board underneath makes all the difference.”

  – Ron S., Rochester, NY
• ★★★★★

  “My grandkids and I keep a list on the fridge. Four kinds of woodpeckers since November.”

  – Patricia W., Youngstown, OH