LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — For more than a year, one Lee County couple has been trying to solve the mystery of what could possibly be damaging their vehicles. 

The Drescher’s live off Hyde Park Drive in Lehigh Acres. Roughly a year ago, Regina Drescher first noticed damage to her brand-new Honda. 

“I just came home one afternoon and just noticed something was weird about the plastic,” she said. “So, I went to check it out.”

That’s the moment she discovered what would be a year-long hunt for answers. 

On both sides of her windshield, it looks like something pecked its way through hard plastic. On the other side, it looks like something was nibbling away at the rubber seal. 

“It looked like it had been attacked by something,” she said. 

Then Regina and her husband, Scott, found yet another clue. 

“The paint was all scratched up like something was trying to get down in there,” Regina said. 

“It’s sort of been one of those things that we just wrote off and said we have no idea,” added Scott. 

That is… until now, a year later, when it happened again. This time it was to Scott’s pickup truck. 

“Jumped up and looked on the top of my truck and saw the damage,” Scott said. 

Wait a minute. Could it really be the same thing that happened to Regina’s car a year ago? 

“Put two and two together, and it’s got to be the same thing,” he said. 

So, who or what is behind this? It turns out it’s not a big scary animal or even a not-so-nice neighbor. 

Rather, it’s two small birds. 

“I took a picture of them and when I zoomed in on the picture I could see them nibbling on his sunroof,” Regina said. 

The birds are Crested Caracaras, a protected migratory bird that’s native to Southwest Florida. 

The Dreschers have one big question answered, but now there’s an even bigger question: why? 

“I’m befuddled. I don’t know,” Scott said. “I don’t know what they could be going for. I don’t know what the attraction to car trim is.”

“I don’t know if they’re after some kind of bug or something,” Regina added. 

Shorebird experts at the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation told ABC7 that they’re not exactly sure either, which makes it even harder to prevent. 

“We like having them around, but we don’t want them chewing on our cars,” Regina said. 

She’s now parking her car in the garage. Meanwhile for Scott’s truck, they might buy a wooden owl to deter the birds. 

“It’s bizarre to have a bird eating your car,” Scott said.