Subject: [Tweeters] Battle of Red-breasted Nuthatches
Date: May 16 22:24:24 2009
From: Megan Lyden - meganlyden at msn.com




Hi Tweets,



My husband observed a fiery battle between two Red-breasted Nuthatches in
our front yard, where we have a birdbox installed on a tree. First, he saw
what seemed like a pair of nuthatches going in and out of the box as well as
pecking around the hole in the box. A couple of times, one of them flew up
to the tip of a branch and stood up tall and called repeatedly. A little
later, two nuthatches (not sure they were the same two birds he had seen
together) zipped up into the air and tussled in flight. They grappled with
one another and spiraled maybe 20 feet down, onto the lawn, still holding
onto one another by their fee. There they lay, on their sides, still
grasping one another, pecking and kicking for at least five minutes. At one
point, one stopped moving and my husband thought it was dead. However, it
perked up and the two continued wrestling together and eventually one took
off, and the other followed.



Megan Lyden

Bellevue, Washington