Yeah, they enforced it, but they didn't rake him over the coals with it. As the article says, since this was a migratory bird, they could very well have pressed federal charges against the man, but they didn't. This is something that I was recently made aware of from my brother-in-law, who is an avid hunter. If it's a bird, and it's not within a certain season for that bird specifically, you had best leave it alone. So many birds migrate from state to state, that shooting one is a good way to end up with federal fines.

SSS Shoot shovel and shut up. If confronted deny......if you did not get caught on film it never happened. He was a fool to admit to doing it.

Dang! I must have a woodpecker with a carbide tipped bill because it keeps pecking on my metal barn. I ended up naming it 'Rosie the Riveter'. If it ends up with a hole through it's body I'll tell the judge it has to be from the SVB that did it because they are raising heck with my squash vines.

MOO

There's one in my neighborhood that keeps jack-hammering the electrical boxes around here. The first time I heard it going 'brrrrra-a-a-a-a-a-a-ang' I had to laugh.

What is totally ridiculous is that crows are on this list.

We have tons of them living around my yard. One particularly annoying guy likes to peck on the rain gutter above my bedroom window every morning - always the same spot. We were sitting in the backyard recently and noticed that you can see the metal show through the small spot on the brown paint. He only does it for about 10 or 15 seconds. I was really worried at first until someone told me this was their way of establishing their territory.

I bought a handmade woodpecker house from an old WWII marine who peddles his wares in the Sat. morn market during season. It's been six months and still no
residents.

Crows are on the list!!?? That means we can't do anthing about those blasted creatures that keep leaving dead things in my birdbaths? Why would crows be on the list?

Interestingly enough, I have not had crows at my birdbaths yet. I've seen almost all the songbirds in my area using them at some point or another, even caught one of red-shouldered hawks using it while its mate sat on the fence acting as a lookout. But not the crows.

We have a brood of Red-Bellied Woodpeckers nesting inside the trunk of a dying Chinaberry tree that sits in the back yard of the troublesome neighbor's house. It's been a couple weeks since I've heard the 'cheep cheep cheep' of hungry chicks coming from the tree, but the parents still keep going in and out all-day long. But while the nest is there, the parents tend to run off other woodpeckers, even the one Pileated Woodpecker that rarely comes around. And they don't use their own tree or other nearby trees while searching for food, but keep flying about 200 yds away into a copse of oaks.

Funny part is, while they tend to run off other woodpeckers and even the crows and hawks if they get too close to the nest, they let the squirrels and other songbirds hang around as much as they want. One squirrel, or perhaps its more than one, has stopped at the nest hole a few times and peeked inside for a few seconds before moving on. It's like 'Uncle Squirrel' stops in to say good morning before heading out on his daily errands.

They're probably running off the other woodpecker because they are compitition for nesting sites and food sources. They're running off the hawks and crows because they are pedators that would consider a baby bird a tasty treat.

One of the things that the crows have left in the bird bath was a baby bird, other things were mutilated frogs/toads, peanut shells, and bits of bread. It was bad enough when they were doing it in the birdbath out back but now they are leaving things in my pretty blue glazed birdbath that's right next to both the pond and front sidewalk! And after the crows have visited the birdbath no other bird will go to it until after I've scrubbed it clean.

As far as crows go, they can be killed. You just have to follow the rules. Crow season is currently closed, but will reopen in August. No license, permit, or bag limit. A shotgun or bow and arrow are legal weapons. Certain jurisdictions may have other hunting restrictions, but it is not a federal or state offense.

As with any hunting/fishing matter, check with FWC for current rules.

This post was edited by inulover on Sat, May 25, 13 at 8:21

I like the "SSS" plan (shoot shovel shut-up). I used to have the little buggers on my wood house. I had to replace planks several times. It is enough to make you go bullistic...pun intended.

Wow! I gotta e-mail this news article to my snowbird neighbor, who's now in Michigan, but who I'll see again in November.
Every year for decades, from November till April, he kills at least a dozen of those red-bellied woodpeckers, which he claims destroy his honeybell tangeloes.
Once in a while I'll hear the crack of his .22 rifle, then immediately call him to ask what he's shooting at. The answer is always the same. "Got one of them buggers!"
The "buggers" are red-bellied woodpeckers.
For some reason, these woodpeckers leave my tangeloes alone, although they do raid my figs and loquats.
My arch-enemy is the common grackle (NOT the boat-tailed variety!)
These feathered varmints swarm into my citrus trees every summer and poke holes into every green fruit. I suppose these birds are also covered by this ridiculous Migratory Bird Treaty, but I don't care.
Death to grackles!
I'm constantly amused at how the non-targeted birds like mockingbirds, blue jays, brown thrashers, and others utterly ignore me while I'm stalking grackles with my pellet gun. In the beginning of this campaign, when all of these species were foraging on the lawn together and I would shoot at a grackle, all of the birds would take off. After a short time, the non-targeted birds would leap into the air at the shot, but then settle down and resume feeding. As the war went on, the non-targeted birds wouldn't even flinch at my shot, but the surviving grackles would blast off for parts unknown.
Today, the grackles avoid my yard entirely, even though I see them daily elsewhere in the neighborhood.
Isn't it marvelous how quickly critters learn what is and what is not dangerous?

Wish your snow-brained friend would just stay in Michigan! Will relocate the girl who burnt down the "Senator!"as his neighbor....

Crows are on the list, but you can hunt them with quite liberal rules. You can use shotgun, pistol, rifle, archery, and muzzle loaders. You may use electronic calls and even live decoys. There are no bag limits, but there are established seasons.

I've had a couple decent crow hunts in my day, but by and large they congregate in populated areas where it is difficult to hunt them.

I've been told that crows were on the list because of Mexico's demands during some migratory bird treaty. Apparently they are important enough to native people there that their politicians negotiated to protect them at least somewhat.

I recently saw a segment on a show called Garden Rx that addressed the 'holes' problem that many fruit and veggie growers have to deal with. The solution was actually quite simple. As the host of the show explained, the birds are not actually trying to eat or destroy your crops, but they're simply thirsty and those big, juicy fruits are a nice source of water (fruit juice?) for them. To prevent this from happening, simply provide bird baths or other water sources and they should leave the fruit alone, taking the easier-to-get water instead. I can't say if this works as a fix or not but I will say that I have a bird bath about 10ft from my tomatoes and I have yet to find a beak hole in them.

Having said that, I imagine there could be other reasons for poking fruits with their beaks. They could very well be a type that like to eat fruit. Or it could be that they 'hear' a tasty treat moving around inside the fruit and are trying to get to it.

This is often why a woodpecker might attack someone's house. It's not because he's wanting to destroy your property, he hears something scurrying around under (or in) your siding and is trying to get to it. So a lot of times, a woodpecker banging away on the eaves of your house could very well be a signal that you might want to have your eaves inspected for termites or some other pest.

Yes, the Crow is Mexico's national bird, like the Bald Eagle is for us.