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How to Recognize Woodpeckers by Their Drumming Sounds

allaboutbirds.org

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Re: How to Recognize Woodpeckers by Their Drumming Sounds

#11

Post by olyjohn »

weard_beard wrote: post #9
CommieBobDole wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the article, the drumming sound they make is for communication; pecking to find food is relatively quiet. He's drumming on the metal chimney cap because it's the loudest thing he can find.

But what’s he saying? What’s in that tiny bird brain worth going on about at 4am? Cats? Smoke? Food? Bird problems, amirighht?

He's saying "I'm horny, where's the ladies?"

The hammering is how they find eachother over long distances. Just heard some the other day hammering on my gutter. Went out to scare him off, and lo and behold there were two pairs outside frolicking around in the trees.

A couple years ago I saw one while I was out on my back deck, he started hammering, then about 2 minutes later a female shows up, and they flew off together.

Re: How to Recognize Woodpeckers by Their Drumming Sounds

#12

Post by olyjohn »

quercusa wrote: post #2

There's nothing quite like the sound of a flicker hammering on a downspout at 4 am!

Couple of years ago, they were doing this to me every... single... day... at 4am. Nothing really scares them off. I would go outside and try to wave them off. They go just far enough to get out of your reach, or just hide on the back side of a tree trunk. Then they do that stupid Woody Woodpecker laugh, and fly right back when you go inside. I now see where Woody Woodpecker got his personality from. What a dick.

Re: How to Recognize Woodpeckers by Their Drumming Sounds

#13

Post by dangle1 »

weard_beard wrote: post #9
CommieBobDole wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the article, the drumming sound they make is for communication; pecking to find food is relatively quiet. He's drumming on the metal chimney cap because it's the loudest thing he can find.

But what’s he saying? What’s in that tiny bird brain worth going on about at 4am? Cats? Smoke? Food? Bird problems, amirighht?

"Listen to how loud your babies will be"

Re: How to Recognize Woodpeckers by Their Drumming Sounds

#14

Post by silisili »

0x0203 wrote: post #3

Not listed is the red-bellied woodpecker. I've got one of them that drums on my gutters just outside my home office window every day. Multiple times a day. Fast, evenly spaced drumming with no variation or fall-off. Lasts 1-3 seconds. Maybe not quite as fast as the flicker, but close. I thought he was putting holes in my house for a while until I figured out what he was doing. I have a lot of flickers around too, but…

If you put a suet cage out, they'll usually go for that and leave your house alone.

I used to joke that they'll let you know when they're out of suet, by hammering your gutters to wake you up at 6am.

Re: How to Recognize Woodpeckers by Their Drumming Sounds

#15

Post by padolsey »

This reminds me of how it's possible to decode prairie dog communication into literal 'words' that specify location of possible threats (lookup 'Slobodchikoff prarie dogs'). It's remarkable. Only made possible by the curious–albeit eccentric–human sitting in nature and listening in true analog.

And, on the topic of tapping, I imagine even the cadence of our keystrokes can be used to construct meaningful browser fingerprints. We are always emitting so many artefacts that can be used to construct rich identities. It's a bit terrifying from a surveillence perspective but also very satisfying to create order from noise.

Re: How to Recognize Woodpeckers by Their Drumming Sounds

#17

Post by 0x0203 »

silisili wrote: post #14
0x0203 wrote: post #3

Not listed is the red-bellied woodpecker. I've got one of them that drums on my gutters just outside my home office window every day. Multiple times a day. Fast, evenly spaced drumming with no variation or fall-off. Lasts 1-3 seconds. Maybe not quite as fast as the flicker, but close. I thought he was putting holes in my house for a while until I figured out what he was doing. I have a lot of flickers around too, but…

If you put a suet cage out, they'll usually go for that and leave your house alone. I used to joke that they'll let you know when they're out of suet, by hammering your gutters to wake you up at 6am.

Amusingly, it wasn't until I put the feeder out (with suet and a bunch of other seed) that he started drumming. It wasn't right away; there was about a year or so where the red-bellied just came for the food. There were several different males and females back then. Now, I'm pretty sure it's just him. I've read that they can drum like this in part to mark territory, so maybe he's just trying to keep the food for himself. He still has to duke it out with all the other birds though. Can be pretty entertaining.

And fortunately, I'm usually up by 4 or 5 am anyway so he's never woken me up, but yes, he's banging away really early.

Re: How to Recognize Woodpeckers by Their Drumming Sounds

#18

Post by 0x0203 »

padolsey wrote: post #15

This reminds me of how it's possible to decode prairie dog communication into literal 'words' that specify location of possible threats (lookup 'Slobodchikoff prarie dogs'). It's remarkable. Only made possible by the curious–albeit eccentric–human sitting in nature and listening in true analog. And, on the topic of tapping, I imagine even the cadence of our keystrokes can be used to construct meaningful browser finge…

I'll have to dig it up (maybe if I get time tomorrow I'll try), but I've seen a couple research papers where they wrote software that got was pretty effective at decoding peoples passwords by listening to them type. Between different keys sounding slightly different, the timing between keystrokes, and an individual's personal typing patterns, it's not even all that difficult. So yes, that sort of thing has definitely been done.

Re: How to Recognize Woodpeckers by Their Drumming Sounds

#19

Post by sdenton4 »

silisili wrote: post #14
0x0203 wrote: post #3

Not listed is the red-bellied woodpecker. I've got one of them that drums on my gutters just outside my home office window every day. Multiple times a day. Fast, evenly spaced drumming with no variation or fall-off. Lasts 1-3 seconds. Maybe not quite as fast as the flicker, but close. I thought he was putting holes in my house for a while until I figured out what he was doing. I have a lot of flickers around too, but…

If you put a suet cage out, they'll usually go for that and leave your house alone. I used to joke that they'll let you know when they're out of suet, by hammering your gutters to wake you up at 6am.

It's likely that they're drumming on the gutter because the metal is loud. Drumming is both a way to get at food by digging under the bark and a way to signal for territory+mating. The signaling is the main reason that the drumming patterns are distinct!

Re: How to Recognize Woodpeckers by Their Drumming Sounds

#20

Post by bigstrat2003 »

olyjohn wrote: post #12
quercusa wrote: post #2

There's nothing quite like the sound of a flicker hammering on a downspout at 4 am!

Couple of years ago, they were doing this to me every... single... day... at 4am. Nothing really scares them off. I would go outside and try to wave them off. They go just far enough to get out of your reach, or just hide on the back side of a tree trunk. Then they do that stupid Woody Woodpecker laugh, and fly right back when you go inside. I now see where Woody Woodpecker got his personality from. What a dick.

I hate woodpeckers. We had a solid year or two where there was one putting holes in our house and it just would not leave us alone. Eventually we were able to figure out a way to prevent it from perching, but until then I was on the verge of wanting to sell the house just to get away from the thing. I used to joke that the people who made the migratory birds treaty which protects woodpeckers only did so because they never had to deal with one before.
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