What kind of bird is this pecking at my house?

[SrMachoSolo]

It doesn't seem to be a woodpecker... as it's bigger.

Besides bird shot, how do I get it to never come back?

-Robert

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[Certaindeaf]

Woodpecker.
.177 in the back.

 

[Lilhigbee]

It looks like a red-shafted flicker, which is a type of woodpecker.

 

[SrMachoSolo]

Here's the other photo I got... kinda do see the "red shafts" now. So it is a woodpecker, are they they only types of birds that do this?

-Robert

 

[Hop Sing]

It's either pecking to let the girls know he's in town and ready to mate or your house has bugs in it. My bet is the mating thing and he'll go away after the mating season is over.

 

[Certaindeaf]

View attachment 862154

View attachment 862155

Here's the other photo I got... kinda do see the "red shafts" now. So it is a woodpecker, are they they only types of birds that do this?

-Robert

Pretty much.
Had it been a big bird sitting on a zebra carcass it would likely have been a vulture. But it wasn't.

 

[Alexx1401]

Yep, he is trying to find a mate. If you want to run him off and not harm him an airsoft gun will do it. The cheap battery powered full auto one scare hell out of critters and do no harm to anything. Used to buy them at Wally. Think they stopped selling them but Ebay always has them. I use them to chase off stray cats and dogs too. Harmless but scare hell out of them.

 

[Xaevian]

It looks like a red-shafted flicker, which is a type of woodpecker.

I wonder why it wasn't just named a red-shafted pecker...oh...nevermind.

 

[Ruger Rich]

It looks like a red-shafted flicker, which is a type of woodpecker.

I think you are correct and I'm pretty sure that's a female. One day while my wife and I were at work my daughter calls. She had gone by our house for some reason. She said, "Dad there's a big bird pecking on the side of your house". I got. home 2 hours later and there was a hardball size hole on the east side of my home. A bunch of insulation had been pulled out. The next day I was able to get the male with a 22lr bird shot. I looked it up and it was a flicker.. A beautiful bird and I felt bad about snuffing it. The next day There was another working the same area. So I tried a sneak except this time the female was sitting up in a tree playing lookout. I think she'd brought a new boy friend around. I suspect they were nesting. Anyway, in just a very few days there were 4 large holes at the side of the house. I had the east side resided and painted and that was two years ago and all remains well. I was astonished at how quickly they could penetrate and make make decent size holes.

 

[Howard1955]

Yep, that's a flicker. They're forever knocking holes in our house.

They sometimes get turned around in our woodshed, and end up trapped on our enclosed back porch. I took one of them over to church awhile back, on a Sunday morning. Tied a kite string to one of his legs and let a kid fly him some.

The bird did eventually get free. There sure are lot of them around. And yes, they'll bang away on the chimney cap and the air conditioner - just making noise, trying to be attractive.

There's a yellow-shafted flicker, too - but I've never seen one.

I think Grandpa Clarence used to call them "Yellow-Hammers", and "Red-Hammers".

 

[partsed]

Yep, he is trying to find a mate. If you want to run him off and not harm him an airsoft gun will do it. The cheap battery powered full auto one scare hell out of critters and do no harm to anything. Used to buy them at Wally. Think they stopped selling them but Ebay always has them. I use them to chase off stray cats and dogs too. Harmless but scare hell out of them.

50 BMG should take of the problem!!!

 

[Provincial]

For a few years I had a small woodpecker that during mating season would perch on the vertical exhaust pipe of my Case backhoe and peck to make noise. Dinga-ding-ding-ding! I have no idea how he maintained a hold on that vertical pipe, although it was a little rusty.

 

[bigbearbear]

Get yourself a DJI POV drone and use it chase the bird away, it'll be more fun and less destructive to your house.

DJI FPV - Redefine Flying - DJI

DJI FPV is a groundbreaking ready-to-fly FPV drone that lets users of any skill level feel the thrill of immersive flight. Features like an intuitive Motion Controller, 4K/60fps video, a 150° super-wide FOV, 10km image transmission, and 28ms low latency deliver a truly unrivaled aerial experience.

www.dji.com

 

[Dr Prepper]

Get yourself a DJI POV drone and use it chase the bird away, it'll be more fun and less destructive to your house.

DJI FPV - Redefine Flying - DJI

DJI FPV is a groundbreaking ready-to-fly FPV drone that lets users of any skill level feel the thrill of immersive flight. Features like an intuitive Motion Controller, 4K/60fps video, a 150° super-wide FOV, 10km image transmission, and 28ms low latency deliver a truly unrivaled aerial experience.

www.dji.com

DONT do this... Svrew DJI they are chinese. Quit giving china money. Buy a slingshot and call it good. Or buy a paintball gun off offer up or ebay. Some are dirt cheap. Im sure it will scare it or kill it if you want.
Some of the full auto or programmable ones are even fairly cheap. Saw some good ones on CL as well.

 

[Flopsweat]

Would a plastic owl work? I seem to remember my Dad putting one on our roof for a while. Drove most of the smaller birds away.

 

[bigbearbear]

Would a plastic owl work? I seem to remember my Dad putting one on our roof for a while. Drove most of the smaller birds away.

Strips of shiny plastic ribbon or aluminum foil should work, they use the same thing on farms to scare birds away because they don't like shiny objects.

You can also buy them at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/XPCARE-Bird-...ocphy=9033250&hvtargid=pla-391219684539&psc=1

 

[BBQ Guy]

We all looked at a picture of his pecker...

 

[SrMachoSolo]

Strips of shiny plastic ribbon or aluminum foil should work, they use the same thing on farms to scare birds away because they don't like shiny objects.

You can also buy them at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/XPCARE-Bird-...ocphy=9033250&hvtargid=pla-391219684539&psc=1

Excellent info... this damn bird has been coming by early in the morning, requiring me to get out of bed to scare it away. (Don't have an airsoft gun... yet)

We all looked at a picture of his pecker...

I do not claim this pecker... lol

-Robert

 

[Hop Sing]

Strips of shiny plastic ribbon or aluminum foil should work, they use the same thing on farms to scare birds away because they don't like shiny objects.

You can also buy them at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/XPCARE-Bird-...ocphy=9033250&hvtargid=pla-391219684539&psc=1

Used CDs also work well.

 

[SrMachoSolo]

Well, the shiny foil only worked for one day... bird pecked right through it.

-Robert