On 3/2/2011 5:09 AM, Bob Whitmire wrote:
> I like to think of finches as the bullies of the cute bird world. Around my
> house we call them finch pigs. They take over a feeder, and unlike other
> birds, they eat facing out to as to forestall interlopers before they even
> get a shot at a bit of seed.
Wow, are California birds just more laid back? Or is it the mild winters in
this part of it?
We have House finches and American Goldfinches, along with dark eyed juncos,
towhees, nuthatches, chickadees, mourning
doves, black headed grosbeaks, Townsend's warblers, bush tits, tufted titmice
(titmouses?), band tailed pigeons and
whatever else I've forgotten. I've almost never seen the sort of behavior you
cite.
Everybody, including the squirrels, moves away when the band tailed pigeons
come, but they don't attack anyone that I've
seen. They're just so darn big that they are scary and take up all the space.
And there's some jockeying for position when a whole bunch of goldfinches are
there at once, but in general, it's pretty
peaceful. Maybe 24 feeding ports helps?
About the fiercest birds we have are the hummingbirds. The adult males fight
endlessly over territory, and bully some
females, but are chased away from feeders by females with nestlings.
Pastoral Moose
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