How many cars would a woodpecker peck if a woodpecker could peck cars?
The community of Riverlea is in the process of finding out.
Stephanie Galluci told the Columbus Dispatch that a minor encounter she had with a woodpecker on April 19th — one in which she shoo’d a woodpecker from her rear driver’s side window — turned into full scale war when that woodpecker returned and cracked her driver’s side mirror the following day.
Then the woodpecker took out the other mirror. And then it took out a mirror on another of the family cars. And then the woodpecker directed its angst towards the woman’s neighbors’ cars.
Meanwhile in the seaside Massachusetts town of Rockport, a woodpecker has damaged more than 20 vehicles according to a local resident.
“We seem to have a vandal in our neighborhood. I’m describing him as 18 to 24 inches tall, wearing black and white with a red hat,” Janelle Favaloro told NBC’s “TODAY” show.
Ron Magill, Zoo Miami’s communications director, said one reason for the woodpecker’s aggressive behavior could be peak mating season, according to a story on nbcnews.com.
“This time of year is breeding season, so all these male birds, not just pileated woodpeckers, but all birds, are getting into a very aggressive territorial courtship display,” he said on “TODAY.”
Magill went on to say that the woodpeckers are actually trying to fight their own reflections.
Or they’re trying to take out our means of transportation as The Bird War escalates.