Old Woodpecker in dreams
Persistent attention — the work that gets done one strike at a time.
How old changes the reading
The base reading of Woodpecker
A woodpecker in a dream is the dictionary's image of persistent, repetitive work. The bird gets through wood by striking it many times. The dream tends to appear when something in your life requires this kind of patience — a long-form project, a slow conversation, a habit being changed.
The sound of a woodpecker without seeing the bird is the dictionary's image of a discipline you can hear yourself maintaining even when you cannot see the progress.
Where you often see it. A woodpecker at work on a high trunk. A woodpecker heard before seen. The dream uses the woodpecker for persistent attention — the work that gets done one strike at a time.
What it is not. A woodpecker is not always nuisance. The dictionary reads it as the dreamer's repetitive, productive attention.
Related in the dictionary. Read woodpecker with bird, hammer (the analogous force-tool), and any scene of stepwise sustained work.