This video shows typical damage done to Kansas City, Leawood Kansas homes. This house is constructed with a product called EFIS, which is basically styrofoam with several layers over it so it looks like stucco. Woodpeckers can easily damage this type of siding, and sometimes when they do other birds like Starlings, or Squirrels move into the cavities. These holes can also allow water to leak in and cause other damage behind the siding.
Woodpeckers tend to do the most damage in the Spring, and again in the fall. They sometimes will look for food, but most of the time the woodpeckers are either drumming for a mate, or trying to scare other males away. A territorial peck since woodpeckers don’t chirp like other birds. So Woodpeckers actually communicate through their pecking.
On this house we installed several Avian Deterrent Devices to scare away the woodpeckers. These devices last much longer than the thin mylar tape that blows away with the first strong wind.