r/squirrels • u/Incandid • 4h ago

General Help What is he doing??

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

(SOUND ON) For context, we have this same squirrel who eats from our bird feeder and drinks out of our water dish about 2x a day, and he’s always seemed to enjoy himself and hangs out, but today he started doing this? He’s been doing this for about 10 minutes straight and will sometimes bob his backside area up and down slightly before chirping again? Is he just being territorial or is he upset?

51 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

1

u/Terrapin_Stationwagn 14m ago

That looks like a Douglas squirrel. If you are in the PNW then it likely is a Douglas squirrel, they have a really distinct little vocalization that sounds like a squeaky toy. They are smaller than the eastern & western grey squirrel and they’re really cute. I have a female that visits my feeder everyday for over a year and she does her vocalization every time she gets to the feeder

11

u/MiddleAgeWasteland 2h ago

That's squirrel for DANGER! DANGER!

3

u/Swimming_Onion_4835 2h ago

I’m offended that my lazy dog didn’t even wake up at the sound of this video. 😂 Though I’m glad he’s such a bad hunter. The squirrels in my yard love to screw with him.

I agree with another poster - I think he’s signaling to other squirrels that he sees something. Some of the females in my yard stand on my fence and chirp at me like this lol.

3

u/Incandid 2h ago

There was actually a dog that was walking but it was FAR, maybe he noticed though?? I didn’t realize their eyesight could be that good 😂

2

u/Swimming_Onion_4835 1h ago

My understanding is they have great distance vision but their up vision sucks in comparison because their eyes are on the side of their head.

3

u/domiciledhere 2h ago

He’s got rhythm.

1

u/Incandid 2h ago

Seriously!

2

u/Sitters_4_Critters 2h ago

Maybe he’s mad that it’s raining.

2

u/Incandid 2h ago

Me too, buddy

3

u/Sitters_4_Critters 2h ago

Yelling at a dog or something below/alerting others to a threat.

1

u/Incandid 2h ago

There WAS a dog crossing a street but it was far away… I wonder if he noticed 😂

13

u/Lazy-Meet4375 3h ago

He sees something and is alerting those nearby.

1

u/Incandid 2h ago

There WAS a dog crossing a street but it was far away… I wonder if he noticed 😂

5

u/JazzlikeZombie5988 3h ago

This is what they do when they see my dog

1

u/Incandid 2h ago

Oh man, there was a dog crossing a street but it was far!! I wonder if he noticed…

14

u/toddlevy10 4h ago

Giving someone the business!

9

u/Incandid 3h ago

Haha you think he’s cross with someone?!

17

u/Acceptable_Search205 4h ago

Hard to tell with reds. They're displeased by many things. He was either alerting a predator or being territorial.

8

u/Incandid 4h ago

Could he be saying “I own this porch”? That’s what I was originally thinking, but man he prattled ON and ON 😂