April 25 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts town is under siege from an apparently territorial pileated woodpecker being blamed for damaging more than 25 vehicles in the area.
Rockport resident Janelle Favaloro managed to capture a photo of the culprit caught in the act of targeting a vehicle with its jackhammer-like beak.
"We have a vandal in the neighborhood," Favaloro wrote on social media. "He was described as 18 to 24 inches tall, wearing black and white with a red hat."
Favaloro said she knows of at least 25 vehicles that have been targeted by the bird, usually on the side-view mirrors or windows.
"The woodpecker showed up and landed on the windshield wipers of the RV in our yard and was looking at its reflection. And we were like, 'You know what, I bet he was the one that damaged the mirrors, as well,'" she told NBC's Today show.
Some residents said they have started protecting their mirrors with plastic wrap or sweaters while the vehicles are not in use.
Mike Foster said the woodpecker cracked his passenger side window while he was sitting in his pickup truck.
"When it landed on the window, I thought it was my girlfriend tapping on the window," Foster told The New York Times. "I was like, 'Oh, I'm in trouble.' It was staring me right in the eyes for a solid 30 seconds."
Matthew Fuxjager, a co-director of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology graduate program at Brown University, said the woodpecker's behavior can likely be explained by the current mating season, in which the males of the species are known to become fiercely territorial.
"They're a ferocious bird, and they're really strong," he said. "It's the biomechanical equivalent of a hammer."
Ron Magill, Zoo Miami's communications director, agreed the mating season is likely to blame. He said it makes sense for the woodpecker to be targeting reflective surfaces.
"If they're seeing their reflections of themselves, they don't understand it's a reflection," he said. "They think it's a competitor."
