Jan and other Tweets,

The good news is that flickers do regularly use manmade roosts and nest
structures. I've had flickers use an appropriately sized nest box 2 of
the past 3 years. I saw a single bird enter the box yesterday during
the snow storm.

The bad news is that it is difficult to convince them that they should
use the box and cease and desist with the home demolition. In my
previous residence I had to repair a number of flicker widened vent
holes under the eaves. I have effectively kept them away from the areas
they were working on (at least for a while) by using owl decoys and foil
strips. Metal flashing will work but be warned that starting in early
spring the birds will start territorial drumming, and metal flashing
(like that around chimneys) is a favorite for some birds - the noise
returned per peck is very high on metal covered wood structures. (Bird
houses are also popular - after all they are just big drums to these
guys).

Another thing to consider - the birds might not be looking for nesting
or roost areas but instead food. Make sure you don't have an
infestation of carpenter ants, termites, or if this is a SW wall,
overwintering ladybugs that the flickers are going after. This is the
way my neighbors discovered a - huge and expensive - carpenter ant
colony in the boxed in rail structure around their deck, not flickers at
work, but hairy woodpeckers.

Good luck discouraging the birds and work hard to get rid of them before
the spring territorial drumming starts - there is nothing like being
roused by the jack hammer imitation of a flicker at 5:00 am.

Rob Conway
Bellevue, WA

robin_birder at hotmail.com

------------------------------------------------------------------

>Date: Sun, 06 Dec 1998 14:09:29 -0800
>Reply-To: janray at oz.net
>From: Ray / Gilbert <janray at oz.net>
>To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>Subject: Persistent Flicker
>
>We have a flicker who is very persistently trying to enlarge one of the
>small ventilation holes that sits up under the eaves on the side of our
>house. This is one of a pair that has regularly visited our feeders
for
>about a year. About three weeks ago the male, I think, decided to
make
>an all-out assault on the side of the house. We've shooed him off
>several times, but don't want to do anything so radical as to
disocurage
>him from visiting the yard. Shooeing is not the way to go. He's back
>within a half hour.
>
>One thought was to put a properly sized nest box over the hole and see
>if he'd be interested in that as a subsititute. I haven't heard of
>flickers using man-made roosts or nests however, so don't know if this
>would just move him on to the next available hole on the house, of
which
>there are many.
>
>Anyone have any thoughts as to what this guy is up to at this time of
>year, and a suggestion as to how to deal with him?
>
>Thanks
>
>Jan Ray
>Preston, WA
>janray at oz.net


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com