Really Odd "Metal Pecker" Bird

He's probably just trying to get your attention...

" Hey YOU !  Gimme seeds ! "

ORRRRRR

it's nice and warm up there ...and he's just hanging out but gets bored sometimes...and pecks at stuff just cause he doesn't have a good book to read ...

Your local chapter of the Audubon society might know the real answer....

John T.,

We have a few of those "metal pecker birds," here in Phoenix. In our case, they are Gila Woodpeckers, which are most often seen around cacti. They love to go up on my roof, usually on a quiet Saturday morning (how do they know?), and peck on the vents for our fireplaces. It sounds like someone unloading a full magazine of 9mm, on our roof. The Bulldog goes ballistic, and I always reach for my side-arm, thinking that drug war has broken out! My wife usually has the Mossburg ready, before we realize that it's just a Gila on the roof, pecking on the danged metal chimneys. Sounds like an Uzi.

Hunt

Bill Hunt wrote:

 

They love to go up on my roof, usually on a quiet Saturday morning (how do they know?), and peck on the vents for our fireplaces. It sounds like someone unloading a full magazine of 9mm, on our roof.

I have one that parks himself on the metal cone/cap of my chimney, and starts up his show.  They do it to attract mates, not because they're searching for food.  It's called drumming.  The sound outside is barely a small "tap tap tap tap".  But inside the house?  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Little *******.

Jason,

I hear that some Gila Woodpeckers have been signed to the cast of Stomp, playing on Broadway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu15Ou-jKM0

Will be interesting to see how that "flies... "

Also, thanks for defining what the little guys are doing on my roof at 6:00AM - I assumed they were just not smart enough to know that there were no grubs, or insects in the metal caps? Well, I see now, that they have a totally different purpose. Maybe I could ask them to not seek a mate so early, and perhaps wait until about 10:00AM to start?

Hunt

Bill Hunt wrote:

 

Maybe I could ask them to not seek a mate so early, and perhaps wait until about 10:00AM to start?

Not that I'd suggest such things because they're illegal (woodpeckers are federally protected) but... air rifle?

Jason,

Instead of hurting the little suckas' I might just mount a giant Rodan at each chimney?

Hunt

I agree.. a rodan would be perfect.. and a scary owl might do the trick too. They get used a lot ( real looking owls made out of plastic ) in nyc ... especialy to keep the dirty birds known as 'rats with wings ' ( pidgeons ) off of rooftop areas where they tend to poop on people walking in and out of buildings ...

John T.,

That might help you, up where you are, but down here, in the High Sonoran Desert, a Gila Woodpecker can basically walk up a window. They seem to be able to cling to almost anything, and do. Not sure if they have little gecko suckers on their feet (don't think so, but I have never studied the toes of a Gila Woodpecker), but they are amazing birds.

Maybe put grease on the chimney caps, like they do with the poles that support balconies in the French Quarter during Mardi-Gras. It's actually kind of fun to watch the drunk college kids try to scale those, to get to the balconies, where the parties are. I have never seen one make it up, and if they did, there would likely be a very large "bouncer" to send 'em back down to Bourbon Street. Yeah, grease might help?

Hunt

LOL.. yikes ... grease on the pilasters ....OMG...

Im about 2,500 years LATE.. BUT would gladly recommend that to CLAUDIUS to get rid of those GOTHS

HAIL CITIZEN !

Luckily for the GOTHS.. they got so far south from the scandanavian places where they sorta started out ... they ended up taking up a new home in the UKRAINE !

OMG !

Luckily everyone there today is a lot more LETTERED ( not barbarians no more cause they can read and write now )