More bonus: How to Recognize Woodpeckers by Their Drumming Sounds

My woodpecker story: Not long after we moved into our current house, we'd occasional hear a loud jackhammer-like sound coming from somewhere in the house, and could not figure out what it was. Finally, one day while outside I saw the cause: a Northern Flicker using our metal chimney cap for drumming (sounds like this). The annoyance for us was solved when we had the no longer used chimney taken down to the roofline for earthquake protection (although I'm sure the bird was annoyed we took aways its drumming platform).
posted by ShooBoo at 7:05 AM on September 14 [5 favorites]

I too used to live in a house with a chimney that woodpeckers loved to drum upon

7:30 Sunday morning, usually

I developed a habit of lighting a 16-pack of Black Cat firecrackers and tossing them on the roof in response
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 7:13 AM on September 14

My folks have a wood sided house. For a couple years (and only a couple years) woodpeckers started drumming and damaging their siding on one general area by the 2nd floor. This would happen at the break of day, like 5:30am.

They shooed them away with brooms out the window, which was a temporary solution. They talked to a person who worked at a bird food store (yes, such a thing exists) and found the fix. My dad bought silver mylar strips and attached them to the general area with thumbtacks. The mylar whipped around in the breeze and the glinting, flashing reflections kept the birds away completely. After a year, he took the mylar tapes off and the birds never returned, at least so far. This was like 15 years ago.

My understanding is that usually when they peck on houses they are looking for nesting areas. The birds hear there's a hollow void behind the siding in spots and are trying to make a hole into which they would build a nest. Makes sense, as with siding (siding in good shape, at least) there aren't any bugs to be found.

There are still plenty of woodpeckers around their neighborhood, so presumably the birds found other nesting sites. Very beautiful and interesting birds. My folks put up a suet feeder, which attracts them like crazy... so if you wanna see woodpeckers, get a suet feeder. Be prepared to buy LOTS of suet bars, as many birds love the stuff. It's animal fat pressed with various bird-friendly grain.
posted by SoberHighland at 7:28 AM on September 14 [2 favorites]

Once saw a Downy Woodpecker ( per Merlin) teaching a smaller one how to peck on the trees in front of our house. Adorable.
posted by emjaybee at 7:53 AM on September 14 [3 favorites]

...and find the most resonant objects to strike, drumming signature beats with their impressive bills.

It is the daytime, Hector. The Day. When I sleep. What the fuck.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:35 AM on September 14 [7 favorites]

Pileated woodpeckers get my vote for the "holy shit, what was that?" bird. They seem more pterodactyl than bird
posted by scruss at 10:52 AM on September 14

I'm another person who was convinced that a ghostly air compressor haunted our utility room and would bang unexpectedly throughout the day until we recorded the sound and sent it to our son who is a home inspector. He LOL'd immediately and told us what the problem was: a woodpecker proving his reproductive capacity to listening female woodpeckers by hammering on the metal plumbing stack vent on the roof (where the sound conducted through the plumbing down to our water heater), the woodpecker equivalent of being truly metal. Apparently there are businesses in our area who will spray cork on chimneys and such because woodpeckers hate the stuff and will avoid it. Woodpeckers are protected in our city, and so deterrence is about as far as you can go. They can do real, expensive damage to property, but convincing them to go damage someone else's house is about all one can do.
posted by angiep at 12:23 PM on September 14 [2 favorites]

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