Mass. Residents Say Woodpecker Vandal Destroyed 25 Automobile Mirrors (Unique)

• A male woodpecker in Massachusetts was caught vandalizing autos amid the chicken’s mating season
• Resident Janelle Favaloro tells PEOPLE that the pileated woodpecker in query is answerable for smashing no less than 25 automotive mirrors
• Consultants say the mating season for the pileated woodpecker can final till June

A Rockport, Mass., neighborhood is getting vandalized by an unlikely felony — a pileated woodpecker.

Rockport resident Janelle Favaloro says she was among the many first to appreciate {that a} native woodpecker was behind a rash of automotive mirror smashings. Favaloro tells PEOPLE she noticed the male woodpecker destroying one of many 25 mirrors he has busted thus far. After this break in Rockport’s automotive vandalism case, Favaloro posted a comical description of the chicken’s enterprise on a neighborhood Fb group. 

“There was a vandal breaking automobile mirrors,” Favaloro wrote. “He’s described as 18″ -24″ tall, carrying black and white, with a purple hat.”

The publish, which went up on April 1, was not an April Idiot’s prank.

“My neighbors began commenting and saying, ‘Oh my god, we had two mirrors damaged too!’ So it grew to become a viral neighborhood factor,” Favaloro, 59, tells PEOPLE. “Then we realized that he was principally canvassing the entire high of the hill we stay on. It is fairly wooded up right here, so he has claimed this as his territory.”

Pileated woodpeckers are the inspiration behind the cartoon Woody Woodpecker and sit tall as a crow-sized chicken, in accordance with All About Birds.

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Consultants imagine the unhealthy boy chicken of Rockport, who’s within the midst of mating season, noticed his reflection within the automotive mirrors and mistook it for a rival, resulting in his pecking “assault.” 

“This time of yr is mating season, so all birds, not simply pileated woodpeckers, however all birds are moving into a really aggressive, territorial courtship show,” Ron Magill, the Zoo Miami communications director, instructed Right now. “In the event that they’re seeing the reflection of themselves, they do not perceive it is a reflection; they assume it is a competitor.” 

Favaloro tells PEOPLE that the harm started in March, and she or he and her husband have been initially stumped. Nevertheless, since her Fb publish, different neighbors have come ahead, sharing their tales of injury, together with one man’s truck window that bought an enormous crack from the woodpecker whereas the motive force was inside. 

“It’s wildlife, so you’ll be able to’t actually do an entire lot about it,” Favaloro notes. “However I feel you simply have to take a look at it with a humorousness. It’s for a restricted period of time. It’s positively inconvenient for some individuals. I feel it’s actually entertaining … I feel, for essentially the most half, the neighborhood is simply embracing it and going with it.”

The longtime Massachusetts resident explains that lots of her neighbors don’t have garages and have needed to get inventive relating to defending their mirrors. 

“Lots of people are simply pulling their mirrors in, folding them in, a number of individuals have put small trash baggage on them, just like the grocery baggage,” she shares. “My subsequent door neighbor put some scarves on there simply to cowl the glass. You simply do what you gotta do.”  

The woodpecker’s mating season is alleged to final till June, and Favaloro has a message for her neighborhood menace. 

“This isn’t actually the easiest way to draw a mate,” she teases. “I do not assume the ladies are going to be impressed.”