I thought some of you would enjoy this. The message comes from the Birding
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Area # 551 Birding in North America06-07-95 23:15 Message # 281
>From : Sharon Allsup
To : All
Subj : Birdie Behavior

Some fun observations last weekend:

The chickadee family has started to wean their fledglings, and most
of the young are developing attitudes when it comes to sharing the feeder
space with *any* other bird. They've learned it doesn't do any good to
threaten their parents, and the female cardinal *will* fight back. So
mostly they arrive in a clump and fight amongst themselves.

One youngster, chased off the feeder by a more aggressive sibling,
flitted over to near side of the niger feeder. Decided after a couple of
nibbles he didn't like niger. The suet cage which hangs from the same hook
as the niger feeder, sort of leaning against it, was occupied by a male
downy woodpecker (who ignored the chickadees, having a suet cage, niger
feeder *and* bulk of the main feeder between himself and the rest of the
chickadee flock).

The outcast chickadee tried to land on top of the suet cage. The
male woodpecker quickly stabbed in defense. The chickadee decided not to
argue with that beak and hopped back over to the main feeder - where he was
promptly chased away by his siblings.

Back to the niger feeder for the chickadee, this time on top of the
thing, looking down at the suet cage and the woodpecker. The woodpecker
noticed this attention, lifted his head and made two quick short jabs with
his beak - no mistaking the intent!

The chickadee reversed direction a couple of times in that hop-jump
pattern small birds have ... left, right, left right. Then he appeared to
come to a decision. He dropped down the side of the niger feeder opposite
the woodpecker to the bottom feeder perch. He then flitted around the base
of the niger feeder to the bottom perch on the other side, which put him
just underneath the suet cage.

Whereupon this chickadee stretched up and YANKED the woodpecker's
tail! The startled woodpecker flew off (tossing suet cage and niger feeder
and one chickadee in all directions). The chickadee recovered from his
dislodging and flew up to feed at the suet cage.

Some of these everyday backyard birds do things that make for
sightings as fun and unique as those out in the field with the rarest of
migrants.


--- Maximus 2.01wb
* Origin: life 2> /dev/null & (1:130/404)

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