Pests on my Norway Spruce?

[ant888nsmb2]

Good evening all, I recently took a look at a large Norway Spruce on my property. It appears to have some type of infestation going on around/in the bark. Around 6 feet up on the trunk, the wood appears to be hollow when I lightly tap it with a rubber mallet (or maybe just the outer bark). 

I looked up pests in my area, which is Northern NJ, and I came across the "Southern Pine Beetle", but I think my location is too north for this beetle. I have attached some photos of the bark. 
Any opinions on the tree would be greatly appreciated!



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[SwampDonkey]

Sapsucker.





They killed this larch. And just about killed a red pine it was riddled with pecks.

[Wattwood]

I agree with sapsucker holes in the second photo. There may be other issues with the tree you are seeing as well that aren't quite as visible such as ants, core rot, lightning strike? Around here the damage to individual trees from sapsuckers harvesting pitch is pretty minimal and it is a cool bird to have around. It would be interesting to know if the trees that have a lot of sapsucker activity such as swampdonkey's were stressed in some other way so that they were more inclined to produce pitch that resulted in more sapsucker activity. 

[SwampDonkey]

Nothing wrong with either tree, growing in full sun. The larch was over 20" dbh in 25 years, wide rings. I cut the pine and it was solid and no bugs. Chain sawmilled a post from it. Heavy as maple. I have found they will pick a tree and it becomes a pecking post and only hit others with fair less pecks. They will definitely kill trees despite 'common knowledge.'

[KEC]

I've noticed the same that the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker will work certain individual trees quite hard and leave other nearby trees of the same species alone. One year they hit a mountain ash tree in my yard real hard. Yesterday I saw one in the yard for the first time this year. They are migratory. 

[Sailor Mars]

Sapsucker damage occurs in patterns, you'll see grids of holes along the bark. With insect damage, it'll be less uniform and you'll probably see other signs or symptoms, like frass, crown dieback, chlorosis, pitch tubes, etc. Southern pine beetle occurs in NJ, as its been moving slowly up more north. Makes small, round holes, but usually attacks weakened or stressed trees. Looks like sapsucker, but it's worth keeping in mind the effects that sapsuckers cause. It'll open it up to fungi, insects, and other decay, and in super heavy circumstances, can girdle a tree