WOODPECKERS HAVE BEEN GETTING A BAD RAP LATELY (6/23/00)

The two most FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) directed to me this spring have been, “What is making that awful racket at my house right after dawn? It jolts me awake!” And, “Where have all the orioles gone?”

The answer to the first question most of the time is “Flickers,” one of the Cape’s most abundant and conspicuous woodpeckers, although downy and hairy woodpeckers often drum on the sides of houses. Why are they doing this? It could be because the resonating sound, best made, of course, on television antennas or metal gutters, tells other males of the same species, “This is MY territory! Don’t you dare try to come over here!”

Or, he (yes, it’s always a male) could be advertising for a mate, pleading for one to come and take an admiring look at the lovely area he has staked out, and, “Oh, yes, aren’t I a handsome male who’d make a marvelous mate?”

Some of the time, when this drumming is not a short-lived affair, it could well mean that there are insects in or under the siding where the bird is working. I’ve been asked many times whether there is a repellent for woodpeckers, but there’s none that I know of.

Enjoying Woodpeckers More by Julie Zickefoose, a special publication from Bird Watcher’s Digest, answers many of the questions about woodpeckers and their often disastrous relationship with people’s houses. Here is one theory explained in this slim book. “A woodpecker may hear the humming and ticking of electrical appliances within the house and assume that it is produced by a mother lode of insect larvae just beneath the siding.” How about that, John Mollica and Richard Scoville? Anyone interested in woodpeckers, especially if you want to learn about troubleshooting, should get a copy of this booklet, either at local nature stores or from BWD itself.

Here are some interesting facts about woodpeckers: Woodpeckers’ chisel-shaped skulls, reinforced to withstand continual shocks and vibration, have influenced motorcycle helmet construction! Woodpeckers’ unusually long tongues extend deeply into drilled holes to extract wood-boring insects.

Fledgling hairy woodpeckers usually move only a few miles from the nests in which they hatched and remain there for the rest of their lives, whereas other young birds are often forced to go some distance from their nursery in order to establish a territory of their own.

Woodpeckers’ stiff and pointed tail feathers act as props and stabilizers for them when climbing. Woodpeckers usually excavate a new nesting cavity every year rather than using one already created. Their abandoned holes are eagerly sought by chickadees, titmice and other cavity nesters.

Now, as for the orioles. Although most of us see many orioles, both the brightly colored Baltimore and its less vivid cousin, the orchard oriole, every May, we start noticing by the first of June that they seem to have disappeared. Several reasons are possible. First of all, when we see the orioles early in May, the leaves on most trees are not yet fully out. This makes the orioles easier to see than a month later. Also, many of the early orioles are undoubtedly migrants heading either for the mainland or further north, so we do lose many of them.

When the orioles first arrive, they are quite vocal, showering us frequently with their sprightly songs. By June, except for occasional fragments of song, they are much quieter. Perhaps they arrive with a mate already committed for the season, so they don’t need to do much wooing. When they first arrive, they are eager for an offering of orange halves and grape jelly, but as May moves along, they switch to a diet of creepy, crawly insects.

Orioles also don’t have any real need to defend a territory as woodpeckers and other birds do, because neither their food supply nor sites for nesting are restricted. They build their own hanging nests on a limb in large trees and do not have to compete for any special site. Despite those intense orange feathers, orioles are not actually particularly easy to spot, especially when they hang out near the top of a tall tree