Malicious Wagtail

[The Woodman]

A chap I know is building a timber framed garage. The wooden frame and roof timbers have been covered with a breathable membrane - Protex.

During the last couple of days at least one wagtail has been intent on pecking holes in the membrane, on the roof and on the vertical walls.

Has anybody any experience of this or know why this wagtail is doing it?

[Phoebe]

Hi Woodman, there could be something in the makeup of the product (Protex) that the bird is after. A quick search and I found it contains Perlite, Zinc Oxide, Titanium, Mica and Alkyd so it could like a 'wee dram'; it could be after the Zinc, which is good for the skin, or it could just be a thug of a bird

[david156]

Hi.

A friend of mine had a roof repaired and had it refelted with tyvec before retiling. As tyvec is a breatherable membrane similar to protex i'm assuming it has similar properties. His roof felt has had holes picked in it and more than once he has had to go into his loft to catch birds that have come in under loose tiles and through the felt! There must be something in this membrane afterall and there was I thinking he had badly fitted his roof tiles and the birds just wanted somewhere warm to live!!

[posie]

We have had a 'similar' trouble. when we cover ricks of bales of hay with plastic sheeting, the crows peck holes in it. They have also pecked holes in the 6or8 layers of thin plastic wrapping on our large round bales of haylage and horsage. I have always thought they start to peck at flies and other insects that are attracted to the sheeting, but it is a nuscience because the wrapped bales must be airtight and watertight. if they are not airtight then a fungal growth sets up in the 'hay' which makes it poison to horses to varying degrees, from mild colic to death.....If the sheeting is transparant, or translucent, they can see insects under it and try to peck through to them...We have had the smaller birds on it as well, but mostly notice the crows because of their size and colour.....Posie...

[Hedera]

Remember when gulls pecked holes in the Dome and caused a lot of damage? That is a kind of membrane too.

[Jason Claxton]

We use to get Grey wagtails come down on to a felt covered roof.I assumed at the time it looked like water to them or if not they knew there could be water on it.Maybe their intention was to peck holes in it for some reason.An urban(not exclusively)menace ,those wagtails

[The Woodman]

Thank you all for your experiences and thoughts. I have heard about crows pecking silage bales and had forgotten the gulls and the Dome incident.

Apparently the Wagtails don't appear to be eating anything, just hammering away at the taught membrane. Do birds do things for fun? Just like us popping bubble wrap for instance.

I'll see if I can some pictures over the next few days.

Thanks again.