Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Red-Bellied Woodpecker Maintains Order at the Feeder

We had snow yesterday, but overnight we received about 4 inches of sleet. The result was a hard crust of ice that prevented the birds from feeding off of the ground.
The feeders, and especially the two window feeders, became busy places. At times (first photo) there were three birds feeding at the window location. Other times, two would feed there and another would hover until there was space enough to land. The starlings came and created total chaos.
The red-bellied woodpecker arrived to feed and to maintain order. She simply pecked the starling against the window. When the starling attempted to take a seed or to get out of corner, the woodpecker just pecked him back into submission. Finally, the starling gave up and flew away.

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