Hey tweets

Any animal with its eyes on the front of its head which looks at you
directly and maintains direct eye contact can safely be classed as a
potential predator. If such an animal walks or flies into your
panic-radius, you'd be best outta there as quickly as possible, just to be
prudent. So eye contact alone may trigger panic/precaution flight. I have
often walked past a crow (and this applies anywhere in the city) on the
ground at a distance of 4 ft/1.1 meter as long as my face is averted and
I'm side-eying without the bird flushing-;very wary, yes-;but the instant I
turn my head and look at it directly, that crow is *gone*.


An animal's characteristic panic-radius determines the minimum distance one
can approach it. Dennis's flicker is often a ground-feeder so needs an
ample open area for visibility; anything within a certain distance will
trigger escape flight. As an extreme example, Surf Scoters will flush at
any approach on the water of about 75-100ft/23-30 m (🤬kayakers) and
completely vacate an area, sometimes not stopping for several miles/km,
while Barrow's Goldeneyes sharing the same littoral waters allow closer
approach and, if evicted, unlike the Scoters will simply return to their
feeding/resting area after the intruding agent have left. Same for land
birds at a feeder: chickadees and bushtits allow much closer approach than
juncos and finches, and some scavenging bird species of the Taiga and
tundra tend to have very short to no panic-radii at all-;food's too short,
they can't afford one.

best wishes, m