#@!%$#^&*%$ Woodpecker!

[ewagner]

Remember that Pileated Woodpecker I posted a pic of a week or so ago? Well, the feather #@!$%^# just tried to attack himself in the rear view mirror of my Mazda...the neighbors heard him pounding and chased him off...he chipped the passenger side mirror....had to put the car in the garage again.

he's a BIG, BIG sucker.....here's the pic again..

<>

[DaBigBadJoiseyWolf]

1. That's one big mother of a bird, he might kick your ass next?

[4_Legs_Good]

2. Gorgeous bird!

Huge too!!! We mostly only get acorn woodpeckers over here.

david

[Ladyhawk]

28. I've rarely seen other kinds, but we're inundated with acorn woodpeckers.

I haven't seen another variety for a few years now...not since we used to feed local birds.

[yardwork]

3. Put paper bags over your sideview mirrors - he'll be back

[ewagner]

4. I put it in the garage.....

he's been pounding on the neighbors rec room window for about a week, now he's picking on me...

btw: I've nicknamed him knothead

[Ladyhawk]

24. He'll remember how the mirror-bird attacked him and seek

a bit of revenge.

[NoSheep]

5. We once had a woodpecker making a hole in our house. He would

start at it around 5 am. There was a huge hole in our soffit so we called the county extension agent to find out how to get rid of him. She said "They're endangered......you can't "get rid of him"...but I hear mouse traps work pretty well."

}(

[DaBigBadJoiseyWolf]

7. That guy could do some serious damage to a house!

[ewagner]

8. We had cedar siding

until two years ago...I used to chase off a little nuthatch who thatought the siding was put there as his own personal super market...cute bird...noisey but cute....only made a few small holes which I didn't mind because I knew we would be replacing the siding.

here's one just like him:

<>

[NoSheep]

11. Can't you recognize them by the way they sit face down the tree?

[ewagner]

12. Yes, that's one

of the identifying characteristics.....you must know these guys too!

[NoSheep]

13. My boyfriend has been teaching me about birds. It's addictive really.

[ewagner]

14. We learned out

of self-defense....there are so many birds around our yard during the migration season we wanted to know what they were...

Peterson's Field Guide is the absolute best way to identify them....we keep it on our back porch with a pair of binoculars.

[Ladyhawk]

23. self-defense...hehe. :) nt

[Ladyhawk]

18. I love nuthatches. They can scamper all over, vertical and upside-down.

Funny critters to watch. :)

[Renew Deal]

6. Put a bullet in his head.

:hide:



:evilgrin:

[ewagner]

9. He's so big

he might rip my arm off and beat me with it!!!!!!!

[Ladyhawk]

19. The apartment complex I last lived at played the call of a Cooper's

hawk through loudspeakers to keep the acorn woodpeckers away. It seemed to work. :shrug: I don't know how impressed a pileated woodpecker would be since they're almost the size of a Cooper's hawk. :)

I'm not sure where the apartment complex got the equipment, but I'm sure it's available commercially. I've heard that replicas of raptors work for a few days...then the birds come back. Of course, the birds in question were corvids (crows, magpies, etc.), which are smarter than your average woodpecker. :shrug: You might try a plastic owl on the roof or wherever and see what happens.

I'm not too keen on folks who immediately resort to a gun to solve a problem with a wild creature. There are other ways.

[BikeWriter]

10. Doing that will get you serious jail time.

[Ladyhawk]

21. Besides, it's a pretty cruel first reaction to a problem.

There are always other choices.

[BikeWriter]

31. Exactly.

[uppityperson]

15. Nice pileated picture

We get them passing through our woods sometimes. They are very distinctive when flying- really big with a really long neck and head. Beautiful birds.

[ucmike]

16. i spent 4 days repairing siding on a house that had wp damage

every corner was riddled with holes. it looked like beirut, or kabul, or fallujah....

he destroyed the siding on the chimney, too. seemed to like working on corners, probably a defense tactic related to line-of-sight.

the house i'm working on now had the same problem. the owner got two of those plastic horned owls somewhere and mounted them high on the house and shed, which seemed to stop his wood pecker.

if you have woodpecker problems, it might be a good idea to get your house checked/treated for ants. the birds are eating something under the shingles, not the wood.

[Ladyhawk]

22. Not necessarily. Acorn woodpeckers make holes to in wood in order

to store acorns. They're considered quite a nuisance in this area. The plastic owls might work with woodpeckers (don't seem to work with jays, crows, ravens, magpies and other corvids because they're too smart). Also, my former apartment complex had loudspeakers on all the units that played the call of a Cooper's hawk. No woodpecker problems.

[ucmike]

25. acorn woodpeckers??

we don't have those around here. you learn something new everyday.

[Ladyhawk]

29. We are inundated with acorn woodpeckers. :)

Notice the numerous holes in the wood with acorns stuck in them. These woodpeckers really like dead wood. Most older fence posts in this area are riddled with holes. They're also death on shingle roofs and wooden siding.

[ucmike]

30. cool pic

the wp's i dealt with left behind only holes. sparrows tried to nest in the holes but were met with plywood behind the siding. the wp's ate the cedar shakes and backing, and pine trim, but not a single peck on the plywood behind. i guess they don't like glue-or know better.

[Ladyhawk]

17. Wow. I saw a pair of those in the woods once when I was about twelve.

At the time I thought they were ivory-billed woodpeckers, but those are thought to be extinct and I think their range was confined to the southern US. I could be wrong.

These birds were deep in the woods of California in an area inaccessible to the public, so I don't know. I'm not even sure pileated woodpeckers are supposed to live here. :D

That is a fine-looking bird. I'm sorry he hurt your rear view mirror, but it was the mirror-bird's fault for looking at him funny. :D

[4_Legs_Good]

32. "it was the mirror-bird's fault "

LMAO

:rofl:

Ahhhhhh, thanks!

:)

david

[Ladyhawk]

20. African grey / woodpecker anecdote.

Several years ago, I walked into a pet store that had a young African grey in a wood-enclosed play area. He started hanging upside down from the perches to literally peck the wood. It made a loud knocking sound.

I laughed at his antics. He was cute and funny. "What...do you think you're some kind of woodpecker or something?" I asked him.

He looked at me and said very clearly: "Woodpecker." Then he went back to his pecking. I about laughed out a lung. Obviously, he'd been told this before. Sometimes a grey will pick up something in one hearing, but I strongly suspect the staff and customers had noticed his woodpecker-like behavior and commented on it many times. :D

[Ladyhawk]

26. We once had a flicker tear one of the attic screens off the house.

I think it wanted to nest in the attic.

Flicker:



They're a good-sized bird in the woodpecker family, but not as big as a pileated. :)

[Ladyhawk]

27. Interesting. Woodpeckers are zygodactyl, like parrots.

Two toes point forward; two toes point backward.

[Shrubhater]

33. Awwwwwww....