Post #632026

2026-03-12 21:26 UTC

A small thing making me happy this spring: The Northern Flickers in my neighborhood (think: woodpecker’s cousin) have figured out that if they rap their bills on the top of the street lamps it makes a great noise that travels far. They seem to be using it as a supplement to their usual calls. So, walking to school I’ll hear four or five Flickers alternating between vocal calls and street lamp percussion. 🥁 #birds #tools #drums

Replies (11)

@mrundkvist@archaeo.social 2026-03-12 22:10

@ericdaryl@mas.to Swedish woodpeckers used to do that with the sheet-metal caps on telephone poles. It made them sound HUGE with their territorial signalling. #birds

Open ##2234889
@BenjaminHimes@fediscience.org 2026-03-12 22:52

@ericdaryl@mas.to its cute until they find the metal flu cap on your chimney! lol

Open ##2234891
@jivens@beige.party 2026-03-13 00:08

@ericdaryl@mas.to Great pic. This happens in my neighborhood all the time. Some of them are Northern Flickers, a lot of them are Gilded Flickers.

Open ##2234894
@eedly@mindly.social 2026-03-13 00:44

@ericdaryl@mas.to We used to have one who would bang on the metal chimney vent. The chimney was not connected to a fireplace, but to the furnace down in the basement. So every spring, each day just before sunrise, we'd hear a ghostly, echoing, machine-gun noise coming from deep inside the house. And every spring, it took me several days to remember what was causing the noise (it was an old house with lots of noises). At some point, our drummer worked out that the electrical transformer across the street had a more pleasing tone.

Open ##2234895
@iDGS@mas.to 2026-03-13 01:17

@ericdaryl@mas.to @jeridansky@sfba.social Around here, they like to blast away on neighbor’s dish antennas. 🙀

Open ##2234899
@horqua@mastodon.social 2026-03-13 01:55

@ericdaryl@mas.to One very early morning, we were awakened by the sound of a machine gun outside our bedroom window. Turns out it was our neighborhood flicker drumming on the metal rain gutters of our house.

Open ##2234900
@aismist@better.boston 2026-03-13 02:23

@ericdaryl@mas.to I had one do the same thing on the metal rain guard on my chimney. Weird thing was that from inside the house it sounded exactly like the start of filling a 5 gallon bucket with a hose. I had spent several weeks wondering which neighbor was constantly filling buckets before I paired the sound with the vocal call.

Open ##2234901
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green 2026-03-13 07:23

@ericdaryl@mas.to That is really cool. And that was really pleasing to learn. Thanks for sharing this.

Open ##2234902
@philsplace@mastodon.sdf.org 2026-03-13 15:32

@ericdaryl@mas.to @johnb48@mastodon.online I wish they’d sitck to street lamps and not every bathroom fan vent or furnace stack on my roof

Open ##2234903
@ethniccanuck@ohai.social 2026-03-14 21:59

@ericdaryl@mas.to 😍📷🕺🏻

Open ##2234905
@WuMargaret@ack.nerdfight.online 2026-03-14 22:00

@ericdaryl@mas.to @ethniccanuck@ohai.social That is cool!

Open ##2234907