Has a woodpecker ever pissed you off?

[Earthling]

I only ever fascinated at the real woodpeckers. Watching them head banging a tree for grub. The one what put me off was the animated Woody Woodpecker cartoon as a kid. I hated it with a passion.

It probably took them billyuns and billyuns of years or at least millyunes of years to evolve a natural defense against headaches that we as humans have failed, thus far, in incorporating against annoying cartoon characters.

 

[Earthling]

It was actually an honest question I was thinking about. Was just wondering if they use it to defend themselves.

Their peckers?

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Never heard of them attacking houses. I quite liked hearing them.

Cedar siding, but the gutters and downspouts are a separate issue. They like making holes to hide nuts in...and apparently as a way to pass time...

 

[Spiderman]

Their peckers?

I mean they penetrate wood, so I can imagine them pecking flesh if their adrenaline and survival instincts kicked in.

 

[YmirGF]

You use anti-aircraft guns on a woodpecker?

or wandering homeless folks... (They love it. Puts a real spring in their step!)

 

[YmirGF]

Cedar siding, but the gutters and downspouts are a separate issue. They like making holes to hide nuts in...and apparently as a way to pass time...

Yep, here in the Pacific Northwest, every other building has cedar siding and yep, the little beggars love the soft wood. That's why watching one rail on a hunk of metal the other day was so comical because it is literally surrounded by softer prey.

 

[Earthling]

I mean they penetrate wood, so I can imagine them pecking flesh if their adrenaline and survival instincts kicked in.

Now we're talkin'!

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Yep, here in the Pacific Northwest, every other building has cedar siding and yep, the little beggars love the soft wood. That's why watching one rail on a hunk of metal the other day was so comical because it is literally surrounded by softer prey.

sometimes it's all about the sound

 

[YmirGF]

sometimes it's all about the sound

I love it. Makes sense. Maybe I was seeing the Woodpecker Mozart!

 

[Vinayaka]

I have a LOT of both flickers and woodpeckers up here in paradise and they are all out with a vengence right now. That said, I was sitting having a smoke in the yard the other day and watched an eager young woodpecker attack a piece of metal flashing on my roof. He went at it for some time and then gave up. LOL. Not the brightest creatures. (They do have really interesting chirps or song though.)

There is a pair here where I landscape, and if you go quietly through the bush, they'll sometimes land near you on the ground maybe only 5 meters away and check you out. I think, over time, they'd get tamer, like chickadees can. Very interesting flight as well, sort of bobbing up and down as it flies, and never over the trees, just through the forest, around trees. Flickers killed a tree by nesting in it, and it's pretty cool to cut it down. Nest goes about a foot down the middle of the tree, very circular, almost as if done by a large drill bit.