Wacky Wooppecker

[Gardo]

As near as I can tell the house next door is visited by a woodpecker each day. They are in the area and I know the distinct hammer sound they make . But this one likes to set on top of the satellite dish and hammer producing a metallic ring. Last week it visited my house and hammered on the aluminum chimney cap for the gas fireplace. This really got my attention as the aluminum flue pipe carried the sound right inside house. Fortunately for me it prefers the neighbor’s house as it hasn’t been back. I’ve never noticed anything like this before.

The picture isn’t very detailed as I used my phone to zoom
Here’s another shot from a few days ago

 

[teletimetx]

We get some of that around here - mostly in springtime. It’s this guy in our neighborhood:

A Northern flicker - related to the woodpecker.

Here’s more info:

Northern Flicker Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Northern Flickers are large, brown woodpeckers with a gentle expression and handsome black-scalloped plumage. On walks, don’t be surprised if you scare one up from the ground. It’s not where you’d expect to find a woodpecker, but flickers eat mainly ants and beetles, digging for them with their...

www.allaboutbirds.org

Like almost everything, you can find videos on YouTube.

 

[Toto'sDad]

As near as I can tell the house next door is visited by a woodpecker each day. They are in the area and I know the distinct hammer sound they make . But this one likes to set on top of the satellite dish and hammer producing a metallic ring. Last week it visited my house and hammered on the aluminum chimney cap for the gas fireplace. This really got my attention as the aluminum flue pipe carried the sound right inside house. Fortunately for me it prefers the neighbor’s house as it hasn’t been back. I’ve never noticed anything like this before.
View attachment 985822 The picture isn’t very detailed as I used my phone to zoom
Here’s another shot from a few days ago
View attachment 985827

I think he's trying to contact Customer Service by telegraph.

 

[Brad Pittiful]

Heh-heh-heh-HEHHHH-heh

 

[Happy Enchilada]

Not the brightest birds in the sky. We had one in our neighborhood years ago that hammered away on the neighbors' aluminum siding. You'd think that would give them a headache (beakache?).

 

[Gardo]

Like almost everything, you can find videos on YouTube.

I’ll take a look, thanks

 

[telleutelleme]

Whatever insects he is going for I don't want any around here.

 

[bgmacaw]

Reincarnated drummer, perhaps?

 

[MarkieMark]

I think he's trying to contact Customer Service by telegraph.

Hope it's not Comcast, he could be there a while...

 

[haggardfan1]

Occasionally I'll hear one pecking on the top of a pole mounted transformer at the corner of my front yard.

It makes a startling metallic hollow ring, but it's also the unmistakable woodpecker cadence. Very weird.

First time I found a spot where I could actually see him doing it, I couldn't believe it...had no idea they did this sort of thing commonly.

 

[yegbert]

Maybe they have evolved, and are now aspiring musicians. What next - accordion peckers?

 

[PhoenixBill]

When I was very young, we got a new car with shiny hubcaps. I overheard my dad angrily tell my mom that some @$#* bird was seeing its reflection in the hubcap and kept pecking at it. A few minutes later I saw him walking outside with his shotgun…I didn’t hear him complain about the bird again. Now fast forward to a few years ago, I was renting a house with a fireplace and like all the houses in the neighborhood it had a shiny metal chimney cap. One day out of the blue I heard a fast metallic banging sound—what the ??? Looked all around, saw nothing. Over the next few weeks I kept hearing it at random times but it never lasted long enough to pin it down. Finally one day I happened to look up, and sure enough a woodpecker was attacking the metal chimney cap; it would usually fly off when it saw me. I couldn’t drag out the old 12 gauge in the neighborhood, though it was tempting lol…

 

[Gardo]

When I was very young, we got a new car with shiny hubcaps. I overheard my dad angrily tell my mom that some @$#* bird was seeing its reflection in the hubcap and kept pecking at it. A few minutes later I saw him walking outside with his shotgun…I didn’t hear him complain about the bird again. Now fast forward to a few years ago, I was renting a house with a fireplace and like all the houses in the neighborhood it had a shiny metal chimney cap. One day out of the blue I heard a fast metallic banging sound—what the ??? Looked all around, saw nothing. Over the next few weeks I kept hearing it at random times but it never lasted long enough to pin it down. Finally one day I happened to look up, and sure enough a woodpecker was attacking the metal chimney cap; it would usually fly off when it saw me. I couldn’t drag out the old 12 gauge in the neighborhood, though it was tempting lol…

I never knew woodpeckers sometimes do this. I gues the reason it quit attacking my chimney cap is that I walked outside and caught him in the act. The neighbors roof is higher so apparently it feels safer there.

 

[Killing Floor]

There used to be an @ whole woodpecker that liked to rap on my gutters early in the morning.

 

[archetype]

It's mating season. Males bang on the loudest things they can find, all to attract a female: hollow trunks, gutters, chimney caps, street signs,... and hubcaps.

 

[titan uranus]

Males bang on the loudest things they can find

So you're saying I need to move that Marshall stack inside?

 

[GBfun]

archetype nailed it !

I had a large woodpecker type every spring for years(apparently) peck the metal top of my chimney. I only heard it rarely when working in the Spring and didn't bother with it. But staying home for the Pandemic, it got on my nerves and I went outside and glared at it and started to move within 50 feet of it.

It was pretty smart and flew off to a stand of trees. I followed it and again moved closer and kept eye contact.

It flew off and never returned. Yay !

Good thing for it too...I was really calculating the distance and angles some small man-made projectiles might take, heading through the air at a fast pace, as near the pecker as possible !

Dang thing was also pecking their way into my attic area to build a nest....

Then every spring I could have the youngsters practice-pecking on my chimney.

No thanks. They only one who gets to make nasty noise around hear is the taxpayer !

 

[dkmw]

It's mating season. Males bang on the loudest things they can find, all to attract a female: hollow trunks, gutters, chimney caps, street signs,... and hubcaps.

Thanks, I didn’t know that. Now it makes sense why they’re banging on my gutters all the time.

 

[yegbert]

When I was very young, we got a new car with shiny hubcaps. I overheard my dad angrily tell my mom that some @$#* bird was seeing its reflection in the hubcap and kept pecking at it. A few minutes later I saw him walking outside with his shotgun…I didn’t hear him complain about the bird again. Now fast forward to a few years ago, I was renting a house with a fireplace and like all the houses in the neighborhood it had a shiny metal chimney cap. One day out of the blue I heard a fast metallic banging sound—what the ??? Looked all around, saw nothing. Over the next few weeks I kept hearing it at random times but it never lasted long enough to pin it down. Finally one day I happened to look up, and sure enough a woodpecker was attacking the metal chimney cap; it would usually fly off when it saw me. I couldn’t drag out the old 12 gauge in the neighborhood, though it was tempting lol…

We had a ‘68 Olds Cutlass that had shiny hubcaps and bumper. At that time we would let the chickens roam freely in the yard and vegetable garden. The rooster saw his reflection in the chrome and fought it fiercely. I had to chase him away. So that is why I don’t like the ashtray cover on my telecasters, and the rest of the story behind chicken peckin’ on telecasters.

 

[3fngrs]

I put suet blocks outside of the living window in the winter. They love that. We really enjoy seeing them, especially those giant pileated woodpeckers. They don't usually get close than thirty feet from the window.

The little woman has names for all of them and I had to put a piece of plexiglass in front of the window to keep the cat from going through the glass!

I also have regular birdfeeders out there but the deer eat them empty over night. I've caught them eating the birdseed off of my windowsill two feet away from me while I'm watching TV! I've got in the habit of just putting a handful of birdseed in each feeder every morning.