There are worst woodpecker problems to have: pileated woodpecker
I frequently get asked what to do about woodpeckers pecking on houses, and how to keep birds from fighting their reflections in windows (short answer: nothing easy). This email showed up on Birdchat and is just a reminder that if a bird is giving you a minor irritation, it really could be a lot worse:
Subject: pileated attacks outside rear view mirrors
Just recently a reader of my bird column told me about a pileated
woodpecker that has been attacking his reflection in the outside rear
view mirrors of cars parked in the driveways of a group of houses in
a forested area near Syracuse, NY.
When this bird hits these adjustable mirrors the thin glass breaks.
So far this spring 18 mirrors have had to be replaced. Last year just
under 30 mirrors were destroyed and 2 garage and barn windows have
been broken. The bird also lit on the cab roof of a new red pick-up
and pounded a dent in that roof. The local garage that replaces
automobile windows and glass has done most of the repair.
Question: While many songbirds attack their reflection in windows in
homes and or in car rear view mirrors, those birds are not able to
hit the glass with enough force to break it. Over the 50 years I
have been writing this column, I have had many reports of birds
attacking their reflections in windows, mirrors, hubcaps, but never
before has it involved a pileated woodpecker.
Do any readers of BIRDCHAT know of other pileated woodpeckers that
have done this or is this a unique occurrence? I suspect it is one
particular woodpecker , but how did he happen to spot his image in a
car, rear view mirror? These birds generally are wary and only
sometimes seen close to our homes so it seems unlikely that he would
ever be around an automobile in the first place.
Benjamin P. Burtt
bpburtt@usadatanet.net
> Professor of Chemistry Emeritus
Subject: pileated attacks outside rear view mirrors
Just recently a reader of my bird column told me about a pileated
woodpecker that has been attacking his reflection in the outside rear
view mirrors of cars parked in the driveways of a group of houses in
a forested area near Syracuse, NY.
When this bird hits these adjustable mirrors the thin glass breaks.
So far this spring 18 mirrors have had to be replaced. Last year just
under 30 mirrors were destroyed and 2 garage and barn windows have
been broken. The bird also lit on the cab roof of a new red pick-up
and pounded a dent in that roof. The local garage that replaces
automobile windows and glass has done most of the repair.
Question: While many songbirds attack their reflection in windows in
homes and or in car rear view mirrors, those birds are not able to
hit the glass with enough force to break it. Over the 50 years I
have been writing this column, I have had many reports of birds
attacking their reflections in windows, mirrors, hubcaps, but never
before has it involved a pileated woodpecker.
Do any readers of BIRDCHAT know of other pileated woodpeckers that
have done this or is this a unique occurrence? I suspect it is one
particular woodpecker , but how did he happen to spot his image in a
car, rear view mirror? These birds generally are wary and only
sometimes seen close to our homes so it seems unlikely that he would
ever be around an automobile in the first place.
Benjamin P. Burtt
bpburtt@usadatanet.net
> Professor of Chemistry Emeritus
posted by birdchick at 6:33 PM
10 Comments:
eI get visits from Pileated Woodpeckers every day. This year the two (male & female) adults would bring the babies to my feeder15' from my patio door, the male would bring the male baby and the female would bring the female baby. My feeders have lots of room for the babies to stand and wait for the food (suet) from Ma & Pa. All of those broken mirrors and windows were not broken by this specie of woodpecker, That is a lot of nonsense, trust me just this one time.
I just posted the following on my local birding listserv (PABIRDS):
"I took my usual after-lunch walk around my office building (a large, multi-storied building with mirrored glass panels) and much to my surprise discovered a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers. The male was on the ground at the base of the building, in a section where the reflective panels come all the way down to ground level. I was startled at first and thought maybe the bird was a window strike victim, but it was moving quite naturally, poking its head into the air, moving from side-to-side, all while intently staring at its reflection in the glass! As I watched it, a second Pileated Woodpecker (female) came out of the adjacent woods and perched on a nearby bush. I watched the bird admire himself in the mirror for almost 15 minutes, and was able to approach within 15 feet without alarming it. When I finally got closer, it flew into a nearby tree. As soon as I walked away from the area, he was back at the windows checking out his rival once again. 10 minutes later, I walked by the area and both birds flew off into a nearby tall tree."
It's now two hours later, and the same pair of Pileateds are still there and the male is still eyeing himself in the mirror! I didn't see it pecking the glass and I doubt if the bird could damage these heavy panes, but I can imagine it would be easy for it to break thinner glass.
We have this problem of woodpeckers attacking the windows and particularly on wooden frames and ripping apart the wooden frames. About 20 housed has reported this problem in Kerala State in south India. We assume that this has happened as a part of territory keeping behavour of the Golden backed woodpecker for driving away the other individuals from the area. We also hope that this will subside after the breeding period is over.
Dr.E.A. Jayson
jayson.58@gmail.com
Interesting comments from Kerala, India, half way round the world. We have a weekend house in West Virginia and have just had the identical experience of finding our picture window and sliding glass door frames attacked with substantial damage. A neighbor's house was also attacked, although they were there and were able to do some shooing away of the pair of pileated woodpeckers. We have never had this problem in 25 years of ownership. We think it may have something to do with loss of habitat, as 50 acres of nearby trees were recently cut down.
Heather
Lonepaddler@yahoo.com
I have a cabin in the woods. This weekend, I left the windows open. They swing open; they don't go up and down. They have wood frames. After running errands, I pulled into the driveway (dirt) and saw a pileated woodpecker leave from the area of the house. I inspected. I couldn't believe it. The damage to the frames surrounding the pane was unbelievable. The panes are almost about to fall out. I didn't leave the cabe all weekend after that, even though I'm along a river and went there to canoe. When I was in the house with the windows open, I twice heard the woodpecker and by the time I got outside slamming the door, he/she was gone. What is going on here? Is it a reflection? An easy perch? This cabin is in Wisconsin, I had to leave Sunday night, and my hope is with the windows closed, the bird will leave them alone. Before I left, I used duct tape to make sure the panes don't fall out of their frames and sprayed the duct tape with Wasp foam. What is going on? If someone can help out on this, my email is jrtybor@hotmail.com Thanks much.
For all the non-believers out there...
This morning I heard a loud knocking noise coming from somehwere outside my house at around 5:15 AM. Seeing as it was so early I was alarmed and ran outside to see what it was. Much to my surprise there was a rather large pileated woodpecker pecking away at one of the window panes on my garage door! Afraid that he was going to break the window, I moved closer and scared him away. Well...within an hour or so he came back and finished the job, breaking the window! And as if that was not enough, he then moved on to my neighbor's garage and started hammering away at their garage window until he was chased away.
Who knows what attracts them to do this...but belive me it DID happen and I have the broken glass to prove it!!!
We had a large woodpecker attacking one of our upper glass windows. It's been occuring during October and very noisy. He also removed part of the weather stripping. We secured a fake owl to the house which has kept him away; however, he has now started on the neighbors house. We live in the western Chicago suburbs. I don't know my woodpeckers very well, but he has a red stripe on his head. Does anyone know why this happens?
Here we are in tidewater Virginia with the same problem. A pileated woodpecker is banging away on the rim around a giant picture window as I write this. Could this be mating behavior at this time of year (November)?
I have done some checking on this, because we have the identical problem in Indiana, Pennsylvania. The best answer I found was on the Texas PArks and Wildlife web page. Check this out, www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_w7000_0616.pdf.
Sandy
I am in Beaverton, Oregon. At my place of work the exterior windows are highly reflective due to the protective film on them. We have a woodpecker than comes every year and spends about 2-4 weeks tapping on the window throughout the day.
Mark
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