It only seems to require arrival of any large bird to scatter the diners
on our cluster of feeders. I have seen them all take off when a starling
or jay or even something as non threatening as a Collared Dove comes in.

On 2022-06-12 19:49, jimbetz at jimbetz.com wrote:

> We had two surprises today. The first was a Flicker that stayed

> on the seed feeder for a long time (at least 5 minutes) and since I

> was about 6 feet away I got a very long look at it.

>

> The second was even more exciting ... I was upstairs (where I can

> see the yard, fence, and nectar feeder but not the seed feeder ...

> and I noticed "no birds!". So I went downstairs and stood near

> the sliding door and a Cooper's Hawk swooped in, took a long

> look at the feeder to see no birds, swung back out and landed on

> the fence, and stayed there for about 3 or 5 minutes ... turning

> its head towards the seed feeder about every 10 seconds or so.

> I guess it was hoping that a small bird would come to the

> feeder and not notice it sitting on the fence about 15-20 feet

> away.

> It flew away and about 5 minutes later the small birds started

> to return.

> I do not know if the Cooper's had made an earlier pass at the

> feeder that emptied the back yard. Possible - definitely. I

> wasn't watching then so I'll never know. I did look and there

> weren't any feathers in the yard.

> - Jim in Burlington

>

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