All woodpeckers will use a method know as drumming, where they will hammer out a sequence of taps on a hollow tree, pipe, slate roof or some other object that can be heard over a great distance. That is how they attract their mate. They use the same system as turkeys gobbling or grouse drumming but yet different in that they use an object that helps increase the volume and thus distance of their drumming calls.

R.S. Bodenhorn