Hi, I just noticed some rather odd behaviour of House Sparrows pecking at my car tyres. The cars been on the drive for a couple of days but I guess they must be finding food there, maybe from dried mud or does the car create a micro climate for inverts? There's clearly something desirable there as the Sparrows squabble over position quite a bit. Anyone else experience this or can shed more light on the phenomenon?
I have to be honest this one is quite baffling.... I have heard of birds pecking windows but never car tyres. If there is mud maybe a mineral or salt from gritting, although that's not good for them?
A Sparrow has been doing this to my car. I wondered why my car was making a tapping noise. Today I found the culprit as it flew out from underneath the car. I don’t know why though?
On a sunny day a large colony of sparrows nesting in old barn walls peck in the wheel arches of an old Tourane on the West aspect here in W Wales
We have this all the time. They peck the tiny bits of grit and gravel which are on the tyres, I am not sure if there are micro organisms in there too, but they love to do this. We had a van a few years ago and I had to put card board up inside the wheel arches at this time of year as they tried to nest on top of the tyres, not good as I needed to use the vehicle for work daily, but they made a dash for it every time I stopped on my drive.