Interesting Woodpecker Behavior

[Subdeacon Joe]

Downy Woodpecker Courtship Feeding.  

Turn your sound down - I was watching Guy's Grocery Games when I spotted these two on the feeders.

 

 

[Cholla]

They are fun to watch but they can be a problem. Last spring for seven days in a row I would come home to a new hole all the way through my siding, sometimes with a face looking out at me.

[Subdeacon Joe]

In the years we have been in this mobile home park we haven't heard of anyone having an issue with woodpeckers damaging the houses.  Lots of trees all around.  Mostly the nest along the creek a 100 yards or so south of us.


 

[Badlands Bob #61228]

Wow!!!  They got you packed in tight.  

[DocWard]

We get all sorts of wildlife around here, and I definitely enjoy seeing and hearing the woodpeckers, except when one decides to go to town on the aluminum portion of our siding. Talk about a racket!

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

1 hour ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

In the years we have been in this mobile home park we haven't heard of anyone having an issue with woodpeckers damaging the houses.  Lots of trees all around.  Mostly the nest along the creek a 100 yards or so south of us.


 

Keeping your distance in California?

[Subdeacon Joe]

7 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Keeping your distance in California?

 

The funny thing is it feels a lot more open than it looks from that photograph.

[doc roy l. pain]

We live in a log cabin in the woods. I have feeders set up in the back yard. Suet and seed type. We have around 5-6 different species of woodpeckers including the large pileated ones. They look like the size of a crow hanging on the suet feeder. We have never had any of them peck on the house. Only on the dead trees scattered around the woods. One of my new hobbies since the staying at home thing has been buying a bird book and trying to identify all the different ones coming to feed. 

[Jabez Cowboy,SASS # 50129]

WOW !!!  Do you have to go back into your house to Change your Mind ???

Don't look like there is enough room between buildings to bend down and tie a Shoe....

The last TWO year we have had a confused Woodpecker here ,,, he has been hammering one the metal vent pipe for the water heaters ...

What a Racket .... 

 

Jabez Cowboy 

[J-BAR #18287]

SDJ:

 

Are you sure that is pre-mating behavior?

 

Since the female is feeding a small male, could that be a mother feeding a fledgling?

 

The pair of Downys that frequent our feeder aren’t doing that.  Since you are in a warmer part of the country than we are, I thought your young birds may already be old enough to leave the nest.  Of course, California birds may have different dating protocols than their more conservative midwestern cousins.

 

We’ve named our pair Robert and Susan after the actor Robert Downy Jr. and his wife!  

[Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217]

We had our power pole next to the house replaced because it had too many woodpecker holes.

 

PS They don't seem to like our siding as it is Hardie board, which is primarily cement fiber.

 

[Warden Callaway]

I've watched Downy woodpeckers fight on the ground.  Two roosters strutting like tom turkeys was very comical. 

 

Here are two pailonated woodpeckers fighting. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

8 hours ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

SDJ:

 

Are you sure that is pre-mating behavior?

 

Since the female is feeding a small male, could that be a mother feeding a fledgling?

 

The pair of Downys that frequent our feeder aren’t doing that.  Since you are in a warmer part of the country than we are, I thought your young birds may already be old enough to leave the nest.  Of course, California birds may have different dating protocols than their more conservative midwestern cousins.

 

We’ve named our pair Robert and Susan after the actor Robert Downy Jr. and his wife!  

 

That could very well be the case.  It just seems to be a bit early for that, but we did have a very mild winter so it wouldn't surprise me.  Of course, it is also a bit late for courting.  

From what I have been able to find online it isn't a common courtship behavior, but it also isn't extremely rare.  No idea what is the norm for Sonoma County, CA.  

 

Other birds we have seen feeding their fledglings - various finches and sparrows mostly - the fledglings are both near the parent and food, and seem to universally signal for food by shaking themselves or vibrating their wings.  I'm not saying that woodpeckers do that, but it seemed as if the one being fed was not showing any "feed me" display.  Unless that stropping of the bill on the branch is the "feed me" display.  

My wife and I are fairly new to birding (well, we are somewhere between birding and bird-watching).  Since she is unable to get out and do much walking we pretty much stick to the trailer park, and mostly out the window watching the feeders and the nearby trees.  So much to learn.

 

Around here we have, obviously, Downy Woodpeckers.  Also Hairy Woodpeckers, Acorn Woodpeckers, Nuttall's Woodpeckers, and supposedly Pileated Woodpeckers.  Along with both Red-Breasted and White Breasted Nuthatches and Northern Flickers.

There are at least six types of finches, several types of sparrow, titmouses, chickadees, hummingbirds, Scrub Jays, Crows (it's fun to watch the Scrub Jays and Crows discussing territorial rights, and then watching either or both of them giving their opinion to the tree squirrels), and three or four that I can't recall right now.  It will get more interesting in another month or so when the Acorn woodpeckers join into the negotiations for territory.

Three or four weeks ago we had a Cooper's Hawk perch on a branch of the tree you see in the video.  Kind of eyed the birds on the ground.  OH!  Birds on the ground - Mourning Doves, Eurasian Collared Doves, Band-tailed Pigeons.