18 April 2024
In case you haven’t noticed, northern flickers (Colaptes auratus) are loud right now.
The Northern Flicker is very vocal in spring during which its long call (kick, kick, kick, kick, kick…) and drumming may be heard from more than a kilometer away [0.62 mile]. Homeowners sometimes express annoyance at individuals who take to hammering on metal chimneys and gates early in the morning, but fortunately this territorial advertisement only lasts for a few weeks in spring.
— Birds of the World, Northern Flicker vocalizations
Both sexes of flickers make a “jungle” call and drum loudly to attract a mate and establish territory. When drumming on wood they sound like this.
LOUD is important and city flickers have figured out that hammering on metal is louder than wood.
They hammer on streetlights. (This one stopped drumming for his photograph).
They hammer on the metal covers on electric poles. (Hey, be careful!)
They hammered on the metal hoods of these old ballpark lights every spring. The lights were replaced at Magee Field in 2018. I never got a photo of the flickers on the floodlights but here’s one of a red-tailed hawk.
Flickers can be annoying when heard across the street, and worse than annoying when closer to home.
Who’s making that drumming noise? A northern flicker.
You haven’t lived till you are awakened by the sound of one of these drumming on aluminum siding on the outside of your bedroom. Certainly gets the heart pumping.
Chimney caps are the worst! I went down to the water heater pipe cap and pounded back!
Oh my goodness, I thought the pounding was a woodpecker! I was serenaded for a few weeks at dawn by relentless drumming on my chimney cap, like Lori. The offender must have found its mate because it has stopped now.