It's Like Uber for Birds
April 14, 2017 6:11 AM Subscribe
So this guy picks up a cute little redhead on his way to work.
Okay, that was adorable.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:36 AM on April 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:36 AM on April 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
[boston guy] Oh my God oh my God oh my fuckin' God what is that fuckin' thing Jay? [/boston guy]
I mean it looks like a downy or hairy woodpecker but with way too much red? Or like a ladder-backed but that's out of its range? Or the red head of a redheaded, but then the facial markings are all wrong?
Do red-headed and downy or hairy ever interbreed?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:45 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
I mean it looks like a downy or hairy woodpecker but with way too much red? Or like a ladder-backed but that's out of its range? Or the red head of a redheaded, but then the facial markings are all wrong?
Do red-headed and downy or hairy ever interbreed?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:45 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
I just involuntarily said 'oh hallo' at my computer screen.
My favorite part was when the driver was like "oh, you're beautiful", and the woodpecker closed its eyes like "why yes I am"
Also pointing out the Picasso.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:46 AM on April 14, 2017 [24 favorites]
My favorite part was when the driver was like "oh, you're beautiful", and the woodpecker closed its eyes like "why yes I am"
Also pointing out the Picasso.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:46 AM on April 14, 2017 [24 favorites]
That was so cute, what a way to start a rainy morning! I'm just wondering how that bird was able to hang for so long and why?
posted by maggiemaggie at 6:51 AM on April 14, 2017
posted by maggiemaggie at 6:51 AM on April 14, 2017
maggiemaggie, I have two teenaged chickens right now and those fuckers will perch on anything and then not ever let go. Heaven help you if one is able to make its way around to the back of your neck, because you will never get it off. You will merely twirl around your yard helplessly, arms flailing, until a second human is able to come and perform an extraction. Hanging on to the sides of stuff is kind of what woodpeckers do, misguided as this attempt was in practice.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:56 AM on April 14, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:56 AM on April 14, 2017 [12 favorites]
Poor guy. Looks dazed from hitting something.
(It's a sapsucker)
posted by hydrobatidae at 7:03 AM on April 14, 2017 [8 favorites]
(It's a sapsucker)
posted by hydrobatidae at 7:03 AM on April 14, 2017 [8 favorites]
I'm in the Chicago suburbs and I've seen a pretty fair number of these woodpeckers around the neighborhood since Fall. Probably more than I've ever seen before of this type. I wonder if it was the mild winter or something.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:05 AM on April 14, 2017
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:05 AM on April 14, 2017
Like pretty much everyone, pretty bird is like, c'mon, baby don't you wanna go?
I miss him so much
posted by adept256 at 7:15 AM on April 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
I miss him so much
posted by adept256 at 7:15 AM on April 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
I suppose if you drive the same route every morning you can pretty much steer, accelerate and brake by memory while paying attention to the needs of the local birds! But really, how is this guy driving while filming with narration? The bird is definitely on the driver side, and the speaker says things like "I'll slow down," while also noticing immediately when the bird almost loses its grip. Best case scenario he's holding the phone over to the bird and talking without looking directly at it, but still impressive...or is maybe the passenger actually the cameraman?
posted by TreeRooster at 7:18 AM on April 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by TreeRooster at 7:18 AM on April 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
It's a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.
posted by jkent at 7:18 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by jkent at 7:18 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
One time I gave a ride to a bee on my wristband for about half a mile. Then it saw some flowers and byeeeeeeeeeee.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:21 AM on April 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by lmfsilva at 7:21 AM on April 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
I'm starting to think it might actually be a sapsucker of some kind.
posted by yhbc at 7:23 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by yhbc at 7:23 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
It's a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.
Who named it that? Did a woodpecker burn down the farmhouse they grew up in or something?
posted by adept256 at 7:23 AM on April 14, 2017 [12 favorites]
Who named it that? Did a woodpecker burn down the farmhouse they grew up in or something?
posted by adept256 at 7:23 AM on April 14, 2017 [12 favorites]
But really, how is this guy driving while filming with narration?
What if I told you that the bird is the ventriloquist and the human his dummy? BRAAAM!!!
posted by Foci for Analysis at 7:24 AM on April 14, 2017 [9 favorites]
What if I told you that the bird is the ventriloquist and the human his dummy? BRAAAM!!!
posted by Foci for Analysis at 7:24 AM on April 14, 2017 [9 favorites]
I'm just glad it didn't start hammering on the guy's head. (Glad / not glad.)
posted by booth at 7:26 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by booth at 7:26 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
What a good friend!! I love birds so much. He's just doing his best :') Yaypril is the best thing to happen to this website.
posted by FirstMateKate at 7:35 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by FirstMateKate at 7:35 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
This is a deam come true I'm so jealous
posted by FirstMateKate at 7:39 AM on April 14, 2017
posted by FirstMateKate at 7:39 AM on April 14, 2017
I lost it when it said, very calmly, "Whoa, now you're inside!".
I'm glad to see I'm not the only person that talks to critters and also narrates to myself while driving.
posted by tryniti at 7:45 AM on April 14, 2017 [15 favorites]
I'm glad to see I'm not the only person that talks to critters and also narrates to myself while driving.
posted by tryniti at 7:45 AM on April 14, 2017 [15 favorites]
This guy is still a better driver than two-thirds of the cars on Dearborn on any given morning
posted by theodolite at 7:49 AM on April 14, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by theodolite at 7:49 AM on April 14, 2017 [7 favorites]
This reminds me of the time I found what turned out to be (thanks to Ask Metafilter) a yellow-billed cuckoo sitting bewildered and exhausted on a road in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
In that location, I wonder if the sapsucker was dazed from having just flown into a skyscraper?
posted by Flashman at 7:51 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
In that location, I wonder if the sapsucker was dazed from having just flown into a skyscraper?
posted by Flashman at 7:51 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
Some of our windows don't have screens. Fast "wuk" series Call is much louder in enclosed spaces and your brain does not immediately and calmly process the noise as the call of a harmless bird.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 7:53 AM on April 14, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by Mr. Yuck at 7:53 AM on April 14, 2017 [8 favorites]
Poor guy. Looks dazed from hitting something.
(It's a sapsucker)
posted by hydrobatidae at 10:03 AM
Missed this, and of course my comment above should read "thanks to hydrobatidae at AskMetafilter..."
posted by Flashman at 8:00 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
(It's a sapsucker)
posted by hydrobatidae at 10:03 AM
Missed this, and of course my comment above should read "thanks to hydrobatidae at AskMetafilter..."
posted by Flashman at 8:00 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
Fast "wuk" series Call is much louder in enclosed spaces and your brain does not immediately and calmly process the noise as the call of a harmless bird.
You had a freakin' Pileated Woodpecker in your house? I doubt I would have handled it with poise and aplomb either — those things are basically pterodactyls.
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:00 AM on April 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
You had a freakin' Pileated Woodpecker in your house? I doubt I would have handled it with poise and aplomb either — those things are basically pterodactyls.
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:00 AM on April 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
Migrating is hard, birds need all the help they can get! Looks like this bit of Illinois is right on the edge of migration/breeding territory for yellow-bellied sapsuckers.
posted by rtha at 8:01 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by rtha at 8:01 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
Apparently in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, the ravens like to ride around (FB video) on the hoods of cars. (Youtube)
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:09 AM on April 14, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:09 AM on April 14, 2017 [7 favorites]
Yeah, I broke my favorite mug.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 8:12 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Mr. Yuck at 8:12 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
This morning my roommate and I were walking to the Metro, and I saw a squirrel and said "Hi squirrel! You're doing a great job!"
"What is he doing a good job at?" she asked.
"Just squirrel things," I said.
Anyway, suffice to say I wholeheartedly support using your commute to commune with nature and offer positive feedback about their life choices.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 8:27 AM on April 14, 2017 [33 favorites]
"What is he doing a good job at?" she asked.
"Just squirrel things," I said.
Anyway, suffice to say I wholeheartedly support using your commute to commune with nature and offer positive feedback about their life choices.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 8:27 AM on April 14, 2017 [33 favorites]
Just a couple days ago I was at a garden center place to pick up some seeds and there was a hummingbird inside the store. It didn't seem well at all, was doing more resting than flying, and let me approach really close. So I picked it up and carried it outside. It's always an amazing experience to be so close to something that you can't usually get near.
posted by that's candlepin at 8:30 AM on April 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by that's candlepin at 8:30 AM on April 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
Yellow bellied sapsucker. There was another one dead outside of a building in the Loop mentioned on facebook's Illinois Birding Network group yesterday so they are probably moving through the city on their migration right now.
(On my trip to Chicago to apartment hunt I go to see a juvenile peregrine falcon riding on the roof rack of a Jeep Cherokee at North Lakeshore and Fullerton. Pretty much set the tone for the unpredictable weirdness of urban living for me.)
If you do come across a dazed bird put a box over it for about 15 minutes to protect it and let it recover in relaxing dark space and then check to see if it is okay. Often times they have just had their bell rung and will recover if protected from predators, accidents or stress.
posted by srboisvert at 8:32 AM on April 14, 2017 [7 favorites]
(On my trip to Chicago to apartment hunt I go to see a juvenile peregrine falcon riding on the roof rack of a Jeep Cherokee at North Lakeshore and Fullerton. Pretty much set the tone for the unpredictable weirdness of urban living for me.)
If you do come across a dazed bird put a box over it for about 15 minutes to protect it and let it recover in relaxing dark space and then check to see if it is okay. Often times they have just had their bell rung and will recover if protected from predators, accidents or stress.
posted by srboisvert at 8:32 AM on April 14, 2017 [7 favorites]
YOU'RE A SAPSUCKER! YOU'RE A SAPSUCKER! YOU'RE ALL SAPSUCKERS!
posted by Naberius at 8:37 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Naberius at 8:37 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
Regarding how she (males have red necks) kept hanging on, it's because perching birds have this cool foot mechanism where they can't let go until they unbend their leg! It's how birds don't fall when they're asleep!
posted by oomny at 8:42 AM on April 14, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by oomny at 8:42 AM on April 14, 2017 [17 favorites]
I made a video like this once: When Prayer Fails (Self-SLYT).
posted by cjorgensen at 9:15 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by cjorgensen at 9:15 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yep, the sapsuckers are really moving through Chicago this week. I'm a volunteer with Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, and picked up a dead YBS just this morning, along with a flycatcher of some kind and a live thrush. Our dead go to the Field Museum and live go to Willowbrook Wildlife Center for a checkup and release. Please call our hotline if you ever find a bird downtown...we are out there every morning during migration season and will happily send somebody over to pick them up. If you cover the bird with a box, we might walk right past and never know it's there. :(
posted by gueneverey at 9:22 AM on April 14, 2017 [19 favorites]
posted by gueneverey at 9:22 AM on April 14, 2017 [19 favorites]
The USA today link wouldn't play for me. But they uploaded it to their Youtube Channel.
posted by zinon at 9:22 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by zinon at 9:22 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
What appears to be the source, for those of you who care about who gets your clicks.
posted by endotoxin at 9:43 AM on April 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by endotoxin at 9:43 AM on April 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
Yellow-bellied sapsuckers are a real thing? I remember playing Careers as a kid and thinking they were just made up for the game.
posted by davelog at 9:56 AM on April 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by davelog at 9:56 AM on April 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
If you do come across a dazed bird put a box over it for about 15 minutes
I had a Deck House for ten years. Not as fancy as anything in that link but it did have two sides that were all either big windows or sliding glass doors. I rigged one door so dog could let herself out.
We hung plants from the ceiling along those glass walls and after a couple years they were down to the floor. It did great things to the interior light but that was when the trouble started. Thunk, thunk. What is that?
Because of previous incident, large poodle thought the thing to do was bring them in and rustle up a shoebox from one of the closets. Why were there emptied shoe boxes on the floor in the bedroom and birds flying around the house? I got good at jumping up and snatching birds out of the air without hurting them. The dog thought that was fantastic and joined in. The wrens were amazing. They could walk up walls.
I busted the dog coming in with a big Robin she could not entirely conceal. Mystery solved. I let Cleo put it in a box.
But when the 18 foot Indian rope plants flowered, I found dead humming birds with their incredibly thin red tongues fully extended like they'd died drooling. That was the last straw. Their velocity was too much. Cleaning up a spot of bird shit here and there in the house was OK. Dog and I were getting some serious exercise. The dead hummingbirds were so sad and shimmering and unearthly beautiful in death. Prior to this we'd had one grackle with a broken neck. We cut the plants.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 11:49 AM on April 14, 2017 [6 favorites]
I had a Deck House for ten years. Not as fancy as anything in that link but it did have two sides that were all either big windows or sliding glass doors. I rigged one door so dog could let herself out.
We hung plants from the ceiling along those glass walls and after a couple years they were down to the floor. It did great things to the interior light but that was when the trouble started. Thunk, thunk. What is that?
Because of previous incident, large poodle thought the thing to do was bring them in and rustle up a shoebox from one of the closets. Why were there emptied shoe boxes on the floor in the bedroom and birds flying around the house? I got good at jumping up and snatching birds out of the air without hurting them. The dog thought that was fantastic and joined in. The wrens were amazing. They could walk up walls.
I busted the dog coming in with a big Robin she could not entirely conceal. Mystery solved. I let Cleo put it in a box.
But when the 18 foot Indian rope plants flowered, I found dead humming birds with their incredibly thin red tongues fully extended like they'd died drooling. That was the last straw. Their velocity was too much. Cleaning up a spot of bird shit here and there in the house was OK. Dog and I were getting some serious exercise. The dead hummingbirds were so sad and shimmering and unearthly beautiful in death. Prior to this we'd had one grackle with a broken neck. We cut the plants.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 11:49 AM on April 14, 2017 [6 favorites]
What appears to be the source, for those of you who care about who gets your clicks.
The driver in the video looks and sounds exactly like my dentist. Who, in fact, does work right around where he was driving. But the name on the Youtube channel is someone else.
posted by lagomorphius at 12:22 PM on April 14, 2017
The driver in the video looks and sounds exactly like my dentist. Who, in fact, does work right around where he was driving. But the name on the Youtube channel is someone else.
posted by lagomorphius at 12:22 PM on April 14, 2017
my cats thoroughly enjoyed this video and now want to go for a ride in the car
posted by AFABulous at 1:46 PM on April 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by AFABulous at 1:46 PM on April 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
The driver in the video looks and sounds exactly like my dentist. Who, in fact, does work right around where he was driving. But the name on the Youtube channel is someone else.
Clearly your dentist has a double life.
posted by numaner at 2:02 PM on April 14, 2017
Clearly your dentist has a double life.
posted by numaner at 2:02 PM on April 14, 2017
We cut the plants.
Aw Mr. Yuck, I was certain the punchline would be that you got rid of the windows and enjoyed having hummingbirds in the house. Though checking your example of a deckhouse I can see how impractical my idea was. The tree outside my window attracts Rainbow Lorikeets when it blossoms. They're one of Australia's punk rock fauna that you swear $DEITY created just after creating dope. It'd be kinda cool if they'd come in and hang out for a while.
posted by adept256 at 2:31 PM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
Aw Mr. Yuck, I was certain the punchline would be that you got rid of the windows and enjoyed having hummingbirds in the house. Though checking your example of a deckhouse I can see how impractical my idea was. The tree outside my window attracts Rainbow Lorikeets when it blossoms. They're one of Australia's punk rock fauna that you swear $DEITY created just after creating dope. It'd be kinda cool if they'd come in and hang out for a while.
posted by adept256 at 2:31 PM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
Sadly no. But they would hover a few inches from my face when I was trying to get to work and make it known that the feeder was empty. They really do sound like mowers when they get that close to your head.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 5:57 PM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Mr. Yuck at 5:57 PM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
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