Hi Tweeters,

There was an incident in my backyard today which seemed shocking at the time.

I have two suet feeders in a ponderosa pine which have been frequented by a
number of birds including a red-shafted flicker ( male), mountain
chickadees, 2 downy woodpeckers (male and female), a flock of pygmy
nuthatches, and a white-breasted nuthatch. The flicker dominates feeding
activity and will not tolerate the male downy, nor the white-breasted
nuthatch, although he seems to ignore the pygmies as long as they don't feed
while he is on either feeder. A couple of days ago I noticed the
white-breasted giving a wing-spread display quite near the flicker, and
wondered if it might be a male also, or the behaviour was just related to
competition at a food source. Today, however, I looked out at hearing
distress cries and saw that the flicker had the white-breasted in his beak
and was giving it a good shaking. The nuthatch got free, flew to another
pine about 30 feet away, and thence out of my sight. I failed to see
whether it flew normally or whether it appeared otherwise injured. The
flicker followed it to the same spot in the tree a few minutes (or seconds)
later, and flew off in a northeasterly direction, but I couldn't tell
whether or not it was in pursuit. I don't believe the nuthatch has been
back since.

I have seen the usual junco- and finch-jousting at food, but never what
seemed a serious attempt to injure. The flicker seems to have become more
possessive as the weather has become colder. Snow now covers the ground
whereas the ground has been bare and the temperature was only near freezing
up until Jan 1st when the arctic air mass moved in. Is this sort of
behaviour more common than my previous observations would have led me to
believe? Does it escalate as winter conditions become more severe? (There
is no less food available at my feeders, however.) Or do I have just an
agressive flicker who was telling the nuthatch to flick off in no uncertain
terms?

Appreciate hearing...

Joan
jinkster at mail.netshop.net
Kamloops BC Canada