Posted on 04/06/2025 5:50:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Residents in Rockport, Massachusetts are dealing with an unlikely vandal: a woodpecker causing chaos across the neighborhood and shattering windows.
While many initially thought the culprit was a person, the true identity of the "vandal" is far more feathery.
Damage to car mirrors
Janelle Favaloro was the first to notice strange damage to her car, with two mirrors destroyed. At first, she suspected her husband, who in turn blamed their son. However, when the same thing happened to her brother-in-law's car, parked next door, Favaloro began to piece things together.
"People from the neighborhood responded and they said, 'Oh my god, I just lost two mirrors too!'" said Favaloro. "But they didn't know that it was the woodpecker. So we started putting it all together and realizing that he was canvassing the neighborhood."
The woodpecker's mischievous antics quickly turned into a local sensation.
"He came into the yard and he started hopping around on the vehicles and we weren't thinking that he was doing anything wrong," said Favaloro.
Why is woodpecker damaging mirrors? Donna Cooper, president of the Merrimack Valley Bird Club, explained the woodpecker's violent and destructive tendencies. According to Cooper, it's all about mating season.
"Of course, they're not interested in the other males hanging around, so they will attack males and try to scare them away, get them to go away or go somewhere else. And this often or can include attacking mirror images of themselves, including windows and cars," explained Cooper.
Despite the damage, Favaloro and her husband have taken the situation in stride. They said they find the bird quite entertaining and said his new partner needs to teach him some manners.
"I think she's following him around, trying to keep him out of trouble and she's really embarrassed and if she could speak to us, I'm sure she'd say, 'I'm really sorry, I'm sorry,'" said Favaloro.
As for the woodpecker, it seems his behavior isn't slowing down anytime soon. Residents are advised to keep an eye on their vehicles as the feathered vandal continues his rampage on car mirrors throughout Rockport.
We had a male Cardinal who would fight with his reflection in a mirror.
We’ve had Robins and Cardinals do that.
Here in New Mexico, they will hammer on metal chimneys.
I did the same in my bathroom.
Put a bag over them when parked.
I was bow hunting about 25ft up in a tree when a Pileated landed above me and started hammering. I’m a large man and it was an accordingly large tree but boy my teeth we rattling!
For the past week, I’ve had a Robin flying at the windows at the back of my house. Repeated attacks...almost all day long. If it doesn’t stop, I’ll get the .22 out and stop it myself.
LOL! We have Pilate woodpeckers in our area, lots of them and they can get very loud with their pecking. They’ve pecked on our gutters, on the transformer at the pole, on my radio tower but so far haven’t bothered our vehicles. When this first started happening I did a little research and yep, it’s mating season...the louder the pecker the more chance of mating. One year we had one constantly pecking on the radio tower for about a week straight, it was hysterical, we figured he was really desperate, teeheehee.
He’ll probably hurt himself. One Robin we had bonked his beak so many times it finally bled. That’s when he stopped.
It is quite something. One year we were treated to a Pileated making a hole in the tree for a nest. We thought it was impressive, but the Mrs. apparently chose a different location for nesting. It would’ve been cool to watch that, but c’est la vie.
How cute is that!
I was a big fan of Woody Woodpecker. Yet I remember nothing about what Woody was actually doing.
I only remember the theme song.
Drilled right in, forever. 🤣
***Drilled right in, forever. 🤣***
For sure! Perfect word choice, too!
The article did say it was due to mating season, so, apparently, yes.
</guffaw!>
I have one that every year, this time of year, a male pecks on the metal chimney top and makes a racket
🤪
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