#bird-feeding

[burtontracks]

CUP 26  250122ac

cup, table, round window, bird feeding on mudflats

[jazzeria]

I love how the birds perch and lean out with food in their mouths.  I’m not sure if this means anything in bird communication, but it sure is cute to see!

Black-capped chickadee, and either Hoary redpoll or Common redpoll.

[jazzeria]

It’s shots like these that remind me that birds are modern-day dinosaurs.

Hoary Redpolls at the feeder (or possibly female Common Redpolls, it’s hard to tell--I’m also not sure whether they’re still wearing winter colours or not). 

[jazzeria]

A trembling of purple finches at the feeder in a mid-April shower.

[jazzeria]

Black-capped chickadee eating food picked from the hanging feeder.

[jazzeria]

Dark-eyed junco pecks at cracked corn set out on fence ledge.

[jazzeria]

Justice Chickadees

So there were a pair of dark-eyed juncos hopping around my back yard and the little patio/deck thing there.  The juncos here seem to prefer feeding on the ground or on unmoving, level surfaces (eg: ground, table, ledges), which means they avoid my hanging feeders, wait for other birds to make a mess, and clean up after them. 

Now, there was also a small flock of house sparrows (invasive species in Canada) feeding at the same time.  And every so often, they’d dive-bomb the juncos, or zoom at them suddenly!  (Juncos are slightly smaller than the sparrows, too.)  I don’t know what exactly this means in bird behaviour, but it’s generally a dick move to bother another animal while it’s eating?  So I think the sparrows were harassing the juncos to drive them off.

The sparrows, being the sloppy, loud jerks that they are, were mostly chilling out in the shrubs, and occasionally flying up to the hanging feeder.  A pair flew up to the feeder--then suddenly veered away!  BECAUSE A CHICKADEE HAD ZOOMED IN INSTEAD!

Another few chickadees joined in and kind of chirped at the sparrows in their tiny but apparently intimidating voices, and the sparrows for the most part left the juncos alone after that.

Again, I’m no ethologist, and I know I’m anthropomorphising here, but it really looked like a small flock of social justice chickadees. 

[jazzeria]

I put up a suet cage about a month ago when the temperature had finally dipped, but none of the birds seemed interested in it.  I nudged it closer to the other feeder.  Still nothing.  Then I smeared a little peanut butter on the outside of the cage.  

Last week, I saw a downy woodpecker perched on the cage.  The peanut butter is nearly all gone now, and the chickadees seem to have figured out there’s suet inside. 

Backyard birds observed so far this season:  Black-capped chickadees, White-breasted nuthatches, Dark-eyed juncos, European house sparrows, Downy woodpeckers.