In the past week a small flock of a dozen bushtits have discovered my suet
feeder. This morning a flicker flew up and displaced all the bushtits. But
not for long. The bushtits returned, a few at first, then all twelve, all of
them crowding and jostling and cheeping on the top part of the feeder. As
the bushtits numbers expanded, the flicker moved lower and lower on the
feeder, as if to get away from all this noise and bother until finally, it
flew off, probably muttering to itself about noisy, pushy little birds....

I have noticed that the bushtits go to this feeder all at once, there is
hardly ever just one or two. I have also noticed that the chickadees perch
and watch until the bushtits are done and have left before coming to the
suet feeder, something they do not do with the seed feeder.

My hypothesis is that the bushtits use their numbers as a way to compete for
the suet, and it works.

Rob Sandelin
South Snohomish County at the headwaters of Ricci Creek
Sky Valley Environments <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous at msn.com