Northern flicker. Not a problem, except in spring when they announce territory and breeding fitness by drumming on your house.

Dan

I see Dan has already identified it while I was composing this, but here's some more info!

It's a Red Shafted Northern Flicker, B2. A couple weeks ago I had three pair of them in my yard at the same time! That's the only time I've ever seen that many at the same time! That's a male in your picture, the female doesn't have the red "moustache." When they fly away, watch for the flash of the red feathers under their wings!

They love suet, and if you put out a suet feeder, you'll definitely have them all winter. They don't eat much seed, so don't worry about them gobbling down your seed! You're going to have far more trouble with the squirrels! I'll be absolutely, positively, completely, and totally AMAZED if the pie plates keep the squirrels out of the feeder! At my last house I tried much larger and sturdier "homemade" squirrel baffles than that, and never did succeed in keeping them away from the seed. A store bought baffle "may" work, but they can be expensive. If the feeder is hung in a tree, the squirrels will find a way to get down to it---I even tried hanging mine on "thread thin" wire one time, and they could actually "shinny" six feet down "thread" to get to it! When they got tired of the shinnying game, they "took a bite" to cut thru the wire, and conveniently ate the birdseed off of the ground! If the feeder is on a post and it's too close to the ground, they can actually jump up! And they can "climb" up metal feeder posts (what I have now) from the bottom if the feeders are too high for them to jump! (There are "post baffles" you can buy to keep them from climbing the posts too!) Sometimes I think we should put the feeders out just to watch the incredible problem solving abilities of the squirrels!

The flickers are a type of woodpecker, tho I've never had much of a problem with them pecking on the house. With as big as they are, I'm sure they could make quite a racket if they did, but they're around whether they're at you feeder or not, so taking the feeder down wouldn't get rid of them. Once you recognize them, you'll see them walking up and down the trunks of trees looking for insects sometimes, but they also spend a lot of time on the ground eating insects (as opposed to most other woodpeckers). Mine will hang on the suet feeder for a while eating, and then go down on the ground under it to clean up all the "scraps" that have fallen off of the suet block when they were pecking at it! If you decide to put out a suet feeder (which the squirrels love too!), you could also possibly attract some Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers--pretty little things to watch!

Happy birding,
Skybird

" Not a problem, except in spring when they announce territory and breeding fitness by drumming on your house."
Dan

Oh NO!
So the macho flicker impresses the ladies by making a racket, and then wrecks my siding?

I guess you'd have to be a girl flicker to appreciate it- - -

Thanks for the info, skybird!

So..... my next step in battling with the squirrels over the bird feeder---
I put layers and layers of duct tape all over the pie plate, and down around the feeder like a cage.

We'll see!

I dunno on the feeder, but they beat out their lovely rhythms on the attic vent at the top of the south side of the house, and this year I'll put up some flash tape.

Where they're very common, like here and in the mountains, these things can be real pests and tear some fairly impressive holes when nobody is around. My neighbor had to re-side his house about 3 years ago from flicker damage and another friend had them pull all the intra-log insulation from his cabin.

These Flickers are a MAJOR problem here in central Fort Collins. The neighbor to my south has been battling them for years. Every few weeks, especially in the spring, he'd have to get out with a 25 foot ladder and nail up another big piece of ductwork tin, to keep them from pecking new holes in his house. Plywood doesn't seem to faze them, and perhaps even encourages them. He tried fake owls, fancy shiny dangly stuff to scare them away, chemicals etc. but nothing worked. He finally blew his top when one actually broke into his young daughter's bedroom in the middle of the night and scared her half to death. He finally had to have new siding made out of concrete installed on his whole house! (very expensive)

That's not the end of it though. Apparently after finding that house no longer tasty, these pretty little critters decided to attack my next door neighbor to the north. They went for the section of siding that goes to his attic on the 2nd story. He tried nailing several different materials up there to keep them out, but every time they'd just pick a different spot to break in. By last June, he'd given up. Since then he's been sharing his attic with these buggers. There's been at least a dozen holes 4 to 6 inches round in his siding near the attic since then. He's furious, but he doesn't have the money for the approach my other neighbor took and can't figure out a cheaper solution.

Luckily for me, they seem to have a preference for higher up walls, to a 2nd story attic, particularly ones that have any kind of a little lip or bump they can grab onto or siding with grooves they can grab. My house is a ranch, and no easy spots to land and grab onto except the two vents to my attic. You can hear them when they peck, so whenever I hear one, I go out there right away and paint over any tiny spot they've started on. Mostly they just land on my metal chimney and make a big racket pounding on that. They seem to like to make it ring. Sort of a mating call or something.

I recommend you watch and listen VERY carefully for any indication they've started pecking on your house, and address it immediately before they decide your place is a favorite and do major damage.

Regarding the bird feeder, the squirrels are the least of your worries. I recommend you keep a sharp eye out for any signs of rats. We had several bird feeders, and put out dried corn on the cob for the squirrels and birds the first couple years we lived in our house. Then the rats came. You wouldn't think there'd be a problem with rats in a modern upscale city like Fort Collins. But apparently there is, and they are common. They moved in under our low built back deck. There was nothing my golden retriever could do about them there. They did some minor damage to some stuff in the garage, but luckily none got into the house, and they didn't do any actual damage to the house. I got rid of them with poison in special safety bait boxes. I've kept poison in those bait boxes ever since. It helps keep the mice population down, but more importantly, I want to make sure those rats don't come back. We'd moved the dog food into the house at an earlier date to keep the raccoons out of it, so I'm pretty sure it must have been the bird seed and dried corn that attracted the rats. The experts say dog food and wildlife feeders are their main food sources in neighborhoods with modern trash containers. So keep an eye out for dirt pushed up by some burrowing animal, and holes about the diameter of a coffee mug, or any signs of things down close to the ground getting chewed up.

We quit doing bird feeders then, and have never put them back out. Having those rats around was very unnerving. I don't want to do anything that might bring them back. I'd rather have to deal with woodpeckers than rats. The squirrels seem comparatively harmless to either of these other two menaces.

Bruce

Oh My!

That's terrible, David!

That's horrible, Bruce!

Well, I haven't seen any of them today, and I've been watching pretty closely.

This is the first year I put out a birdfeeder, since before now, I had enough interaction with 'wildlife' from the bunnies living under my deck. Since I evicted them last May, I thought it would be nice to watch the birds.

But, after seeing the flickers show up (first time), and now hearing about the rats in Ft Collins, I may give some thought now to bringing in the feeder . :(

Blasted critters- - -

Wow! I'm amazed you guys have that much trouble with them! I had no idea! I'm just glad to have a few of them around to watch, and with few large deciduous trees near me, I don't think I'll ever have very many of them at once. I usually have just one pair, and was amazed when I saw three pair a couple weeks ago, but it was COLD out, and I think maybe my regular pair, Flickadoo and Flickarette, invited some friends home for dinner! They were here for an hour or so, and then gone again---even knowing I have an easy dinner out for them. I do, in spring, occasionally have one tap near the top of my (2-story) house, and I immediately go as close as I can get inside and pound on the wall or window, and, maybe I've been lucky so far, but that seems to get rid of them pretty quickly. Interestingly, a couple of you have mentioned them drumming on flashing, and when I was searching for my bird identification site (slowly replacing all my favorites that didn't make it into the new computer!), I found one site that said they do seem to like drumming on metal flashing! It said something about "practice," but didn't really make clear why they'd prefer the metal!

It sounds like the Bird God---and maybe the Rodent God---are out to get you and you neighbors, Ion! Wow! It sounds like you had something akin to the Biblical Plagues happening to you!

And, David, I bet that insulation made some really cozy nest padding! ;-) (Yeah! I'm glad it wasn't MY insulation!)

The last house I lived in---a rental---was totally infested with mice (when I moved in)! I think there was a mouse version of Gotham City around/under the foundation of the house! (Definitely no rats!) As soon as I figured out what was going on, I started keeping mouse traps everywhere! A whole bunch in the garage and in the kitchen--under the sink where the pipes came up and under the stove drawer, and anywhere else where the dog couldn't get to them. It wasn't at all unusual to be watching TV at nite and hear one of them go off! I also kept D-con in the garage, and dumped whole packages of it into their holes outside every now and then, but I don't think I even made a dent in the population in the ten years that I lived there! At least I was able to keep them outside of the house once I got the traps "strategically" located, and I checked to be sure I was right by putting small pieces of food out before going to bed to see if it "disappeared" overnite! Happily, I was quite successful at keeping the masses outside! I told the owner about it when I moved out, but she more-or-less blew me off! Oh, well! Not my problem anymore! (Had lots of black widow spiders at that house too!)

But, because of that, I set out to kill mice as soon as I moved into this house! Had NO idea if I had mice or not, but I was gonna KILL EM! D-con went out in the garage immediately! Don't have a dog anymore, so didn't need to worry about that! Stuck a half a dozen mouse traps around my 50 pound bags of birdseed with the D-con! (If anybody buys D-con, BTW, I've discovered that you can buy the stuff that's sold as "rat" poison, and you're getting exactly the same thing that's in the mouse poison traps, but you get more of it for the same amount of money! Go figure!) Very occasionally I'd catch a mouse in a trap (the garage door doesn't close tightly on the sides!), and VERY gradually the D-con would "go away," but it looks like there are VERY few mice here---gratefully! A couple years after I moved in, I decided to move the birdseed into the shed in the backyard---was having a problem with flour moths!---and I figured I'd have a REAL mouse problem out there, but was surprised to find there were no more out there than there were in the garage! I keep up to four or five 50 lb. bags of various seeds out there, and I've never had a mouse eat thru the bottom of a bag! I have D-con out there too, of course, but never got around to setting any traps, and I really am amazed by the "lack" of mice out there! The D-con seems to last forever out there!

Rats would TOTALLY freak me out! When I was a kid we had a "root cellar room" in the basement (dirt room--floor, walls!), and my brothers would lock me in it and tell me the rats were gonna eat me!!! The dirt on the sides was higher than the floor---like "dirt shelves," and there were always holes in there! My brothers told me they were rat holes, and to this day I don't know if that was true or not, but I was only 4 or 5, and I BELIEVED IT! When they locked me in there, I SCREAMED BLOODY MURDER until they let me back out again! Interesting factoid for the young'uns around here! "Back then" rat/mouse poison was warfarin, and it came in a big tube of something that looked like peanut butter (and really didn't smell too bad!) To use it, you spread it on a piece of bread and put it out wherever---and you better believe we kids got a BIG TIME Show and Tell session, and were threatened with assault and battery if we got anywhere NEAR it after it was put out! And---for the young'uns again---warfarin is Coumadin, which is an Rx blood thinner, still sold today! Back in the 40's and 50's there were a lot of rats and mice around----with VERY thin blood!!! ;-)

But, with or without mice, I have no intentions of stopping feeding the birds! I've been doing it for close to 20 years now, and I can't even imagine not having my fine feathery friends right outside of my window! My (heated) birdbath is just inches outside of the window, and I have at least 4 feeders up all the time, and now, in winter I have six out there. Wish I had somewhere to hang some more! The mice at the last house were there LONG before I started feeding the birds there, and there's been no increase in the number of mice at my house now---and I own this one, so I'm keeping a close eye on the situation.

I just saw "a new something" out on top of one of my feeder posts this afternoon---pretty sure it was a Prairie Falcon---and I'm anxiously waiting for spring to see my BRIGHT YELLOW goldfinches back on the thistle seed sock again! Still trying to figure out how to get some chickadees at this house! Not sure what I'd do if the flickers started doing damage to my house, but until that happens, I'm gonna just keep on keepin' on!

And my brother, in Illinois, has a wild bird supply business, and he has a whole bunch of feeders just outside of the living room windows---it winds up all over the ground where most of it is gobbled up by HUGE gray Illinois squirrels! While much of the seed for his business is in an insulated, refrigerated room, he's on 25 acres, with much of it farmed in corn, and it would seem to be an ideal place for "field mice" or other rodents, but he doesn't have any problem with mice or rats either---at least, no more than you'd normally have out in the country in Illinois! I kind of wonder myself what makes the difference between having swarms of mice, like I had at the last house, which is less than two miles from this one, and having very, very few mice like I do here. How/why did that many mice ever take up residence at that last house! I always wondered about that, and I guess I always will!

In for the duration,
Skybird

P.S. I AM thinking of setting a trap for the "Magic Mouse" that came with my new computer! This thing is totally hyperactive, and does things without even asking me first sometimes!!! Hmmm! Maybe a little blood thinner would slow it down!

Love the bird photos!
I've been informed that my place has been a small scale pig farm and veal farm in years past and it was rat infested. I'm very grateful the rats are gone!
We don't have rabbits or squirrels here. The irrigation ditch runs 3 sides of the property and the highway is the 4th side, so it's not easy for them to get here.
The prairie dogs living in the field to the south send a scout or 2 here every year before the ditch water is released. My St. Bernard/Hound mix dispatches them quickly, I'll spare you the gory details.
I do want to throw a caution out about using decon/rat poison. It goes much further down the food chain than you think. A barn cat, a great mouser moved in here from a neighboring dairy. She would let me pet her, but didn't want to come in the house. She hunted a few hours a day at the dairy, then slept in my barn. She seemed off one day so I took her to the vet and she had been poisoned by catching mice that ingested rat poison. She caught the sickened mice and absorbed a portion of the poison from each sick mouse. We couldn't save her.
Dogs eat mice, too and if you're laying out decon the mice that don't die right away may be eaten by your neighbors's dogs and cats. Or by owls, hawks and snakes. Just something to think about.
I use the battery operated mouse traps. I put peanut butter in one end and the trap electrocutes the mice when they cross the metal plate to get to the peanut butter. A light flashes on the top of the trap when there's a mouse in there. Then you turn off the power, open the top and flip the trap upside down into the trash. Then you close the trap and turn the power back on. It's still a little gross and you have to check the traps regularly, but for me it's a better alternative than poison.
Barb

In 2007, I thought I had a whole slew of mice in my kitchen, but it turned out to be only 2. I used the little trap below and it worked in 30 minutes. Mr and Mrs. Mouse were both in there together, just looking around. I drove the trap a couple of miles away and released them in a field. I've never had any more since then.

I think the timing was so lucky! because I later found a lovely "nursery" in the pantry, with soft dinner napkins all torn up, ready for the babies!

Here is a link that might be useful: Humane mouse trap

Wow - I sure hope we don't get any of these Flickers! They're cute, but what a mess they can create!!!

I like that humane mousetrap - it looks very easy to operate, and there are enough fields around the area that would work for releasing. Thanks for the info b2alicia!

Marj

Sure, Marj!

I was happy to have found that little live trap too. And you can use it over and over . I loaned one to my friend's family, and I think they caught about 5 mice every day for a couple of weeks!

Why, just this morning, as the sun hit the eve of the south side of the house, little Mr Flicker was slamming his head into the wall, a sign of unrequited love if there ever was one.

We're at the point in the cycle where opening and slamming the window in the room immediately below will shoo them off for at least 5 minutes.

Oh No, David!

If only he could find a QUIET way to express his ardor!

Did he come back after 5 minutes?

What about trying one of those super soaker water guns? !

No, he didn't!!! Didn't hear him the whole day! They're too fast for super soakers. Ask me how I know. However, a supersoaker is essential gardening gear here, perfect for stray dogs and cats who get into things.

HA!

How do you know?

Well, you can hit them with a water gun but you have to lead them by 5 feet.

Today they are out in the lawn poking at some underground bug - so there is a positive side.

We have the hardy board siding. Not sure it is made of concrete but I recall that it sinks in water but does not retain any???

The flickers must not like our siding because they go to the metal flues and hammer away on them. I'll try the water guns this spring.

If nothing else, it'll entertain the kids...

My childhood home had issues with woodpeckers destroying the wood siding and windows. I read that flies deposit their eggs in the siding and then the birds poke holes to retrieve the larva.

Well, I hope that there is one good result of these frigid temps - that it at least slows down those Flickers!!!

;^D

Marj