This woodpecker thinks his breakfast is in my chimney cap...since the chimney runs down to the first floor, it's INSANELY irritating at 5:30am...like a wrecker is in the driveway or something...I'm thinking an owl decoy type thing...will that work? Any other bright ideas??? I honestly don't know how many more mornings I can take of this "alarm clock" --

 

The wood pecker is probably responding to the hollow sound of the chimney cap. They fly around hammering on trees listening for hollow sounds investigating for potential nesting places. Their thumping (drumming) sounds may also be territorial marker sounds alerting other woodpeckers that that territory is taken.

As for getting rid of him, you could shoot him. You could put a hardware cloth net around the cap preventing him from reaching the metal. You might try buying 3 or 4 plastic snakes and keeping one on the cap every day, changing them out about every other day. If you have the time and ingenuity, you might even rig up some electronic gadget that responds to his hammering and scares him out of his mind. Maybe these ideas will help.

W.A. McCormick

 

I had the same problem. He stopped after about 3 weeks. drove my cat crazy.

 

Woodpecker drum for food, but it's not likely he'll find anything on top the chimney cap. They also drum to mark territory. Since it's sprintime when they breed, my guess is that woodpecker is drumming out his mating call. As soon as he finds one, he will likely move on.

 

Woodpeckers are protected as nongame birds under the Federal Migratory Birds Act and by law may not be killed without a permit.

A month ago we had a Northern Flicker that would come every morning to drum on our stove vent pipe. As the breeding season progressed, he gradually visited less and less often and now we haven't heard him for weeks. Woodpeckers like to drum on metal objects during the breeding season because the drum is a territorial signal and a metal object produces a louder and clearer signal than drumming on a tree does. Just grit your teeth and put up with it for a few weeks and it will go away.

 

Well, the next morning he started during breakfast...so I got up, whacked the fireplace doors open and shut rather loudly...he stopped. The next couple of times he did it, so did I...haven't heard from him since -- perhaps it was the noise, perhaps it was just time for him to move on, but I've since heard him abusing the neighbor's chimney...too bad she's at work so early!!