This was a yellow-bellied sapsucker doing some territorial drumming on an old rusty drum during the Red Lake trip of the Detroit Lakes Bird Festival. For those not familiar with sapsuckers, they have a distinctive drumming sound. Note how it starts and then kind of peters out. When you hear that sort of drumming, you can say with some confidence to your friends that you hear a sapsucker drumming.
It never ceases to amaze me what I can learn reading your blog.
Ya gotta love sapsuckers and their love of “heavy metal.” The only other bird (let alone species) I’ve seen do this was a Northern Flicker that loved to pound on an old 55-gallon drum. Man, did it resonate!
This same sound woke me up in the morning as a sapsucker was pounding away at my metal chimney roof! Man was that loud!
This is great – maybe the sapsucker should start a band?!
Very cool.