At The Feeders: Daylight Robbery

The Victim:

I really felt for this little warbler – a breeding male Yellow-rumped “Myrtle” Warbler  that was feeding at one of our log feeders. It’s not too cold – about 53F – but windy; it was blowing at about 24 mph. He’s a chunky little fellow and it’s not easy for him to hold onto the feeder log. But he had grabbed a mouthful of peanut butter/vegetable fat/seed mix… 
 

The Scene of the Crime:

and had just returned to a nearbly branch. He deposited the chunck of food on the branch and was about to eat it when the Hermit Thrush grabbed it and gobbled it down.
 

The Accused:

Who, me?

Yes, you – I saw you. The warbler wasn’t pressing charges;…

he had already flown back to the log feeder.

The thrush, a little later, back to get food honestly. In defense of the thrush, it has great difficulty holding onto the log to feed. It usually has to hover at the log and grab food ‘on the fly,’ literally. The opportunity to grab some food off a branch was just too tempting. 

Identification resource:

All About Birds: Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

National Geographic: Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata/Dendroica coronata*) 

Related posts:  

- At The Feeders: Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) 

- At The Feeders: Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata/Dendroica coronata*)

At The Feeders: Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusilla)

March 23rd, 2014. We installed a tube feeders (one with mixed seed and one with sunflower seed), a platform feeder and two log feeders in mid-December, 2013.

We saw the first Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusalla) on January 22nd this year and feeds only at the tube feeder filled only with sunflower seeds. It may have been coming earlier but usually doesn’t spend much time at the feeder unless there are few birds at that feeder. I’ve read reports of these nuthatches staying at a feeder unless they have to leave but ‘ours’ are quite shy and leave at the slightest disturbance.

 

It’s a small bird (3.9 to4.3 inches), small compared with the White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) which is 5.1 to 5.5 inches long. 

Perched at the feeder. 

Fetching a seed. 

Seed in beak, deciding whether to eat in or leave. 

Perched on a nearby branch – a rare sight. I only saw a nuthatch perched on a branch near the feeders on one occasion. They usually grab a sunflower seed ‘to go’ but will ‘eat in’ if it’s quiet. A favorite spot to hull their seed is in the crook of a branch on a nearby pine tree.

We saw at least two Brown-headed Nuthatches this year. They are resident in this area and their distribution is limited to the Southeastern U.S. 

Identification resource:

All About Birds: Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusilla) 

Related posts:  

- At The Feeders: Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus/Carpodacus purpureus*) 

- At The Feeders: White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)  

- At The Feeders: Pine Warbler (Setophaga pinus/Dendroica pinus*) 

- At The Feeders: Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula)  

- At The Feeder: Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) 

- At The Feeders: Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) 

- At The Feeders: Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata/Dendroica coronata*)  

- At The Feeders: Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) 

- At The Feeders: Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)  

- At The Feeders: Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 

- Birds In An Ice Storm 

- American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) 

- Snow Day And Hungry Birds

At The Feeders: Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus/Carpodacus purpureus*)

March 21st, 2014. We installed a tube feeders (one with mixed seed and one with sunflower seed), a platform feeder and two log feeders in mid-December, 2013.

We saw the first Purple Finches on January 4^th this year. We usually see Purple Finches during the Winter. They feed only at the tube feeder filled only with sunflower seeds…

where they routinely fed with the American Goldfinches. 

They ‘eat in,’ sitting at the feeder and discarding the seed hulls.

The Purple Finch is one of two species of finch with red coloring that occur in this area; the other is the House Finch (Haemorhous/Carpodacus mexicanus). The House Finch is resident year-round; the Purple Finch winters in this area and flies north to breed. These species may be confused; a reference web page for differentiating between the two species may be found here. 

We saw at least two Purple finches this year based on seeing them on the feeder at the same time. In previous years, we’ve often seen more than two. The last date we sighted a Purple Finch at the feeder was on March 4^th; they must have started moving north for the Summer. Interestingly, we have never seen a House Finch at our feeders.  

Identification resource: 

All About Birds: Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus) 

Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS): Purple Finch (Carpodacus purpureus)  

Related posts: 

- At The Feeders: White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) 

- At The Feeders: Pine Warbler (Setophaga pinus/Dendroica pinus*)  

- At The Feeders: Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) 

- At The Feeders: Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)  

- At The Feeders: Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) 

- At The Feeders: Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata/Dendroica coronata*)  

- At The Feeders: Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) 

- At The Feeders: Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)  

- At The Feeders: Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 

- Birds In An Ice Storm  

- American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) 

- Snow Day And Hungry Birds

At The Feeders: White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)

March 20th, 2014. We installed a couple of log feeders in mid-December, 2013. Our inspiration came from a log feeder at the Ontario FeederWatch Cam sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that was visited regularly by a Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus). 

Within a day or so of installation, Downy Woodpeckers (Picoides pubescens) began to feed at these logs and, within a few days, other birds began to investigate the logs. The  White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) was the last of the ‘exotic’ birds - birds we don't see often - that I spotted at the feeders this year - on February 11^th.

I spotted it first on the trunk of a tree immediately behind the log feeders, darted onto a log feeder upside-down, grabbed a mouthful of food ‘to go’ and disappeared. I’ve seen two birds at the same time – on a tree further into the woods but only one has visited the log feeder at any one time. It has only fed at the log feeders, never at the suet feeder attached to the platform feeder or at the tube seed feeders. It’s appeared at irregular intervals since and is one of the hardest birds to photograph because its appearance is so unpredictable. But it’s a very striking bird and worth the effort to photograph. 

A closer view.

If spotted, they can be identified at a distance in their characteristic upside-down pose.

At a glance, the White-breasted Nuthatch looks like a…

Carolina Chickadee but there are several differences. The chicadee has a black ‘bib’ that is lacking in the nuthatch. The nuthatch is also larger – 5 to 5.5 inches long – compared with the chicadee that is 3.9–4.7 inches long. 
 

The nuthatch tends to creep down or perch on tree trunks upside-down whereas the chickadee flies in, and perches on branches but doesn't creep up or down tree trunks.

A typical pose upside-down of the White-breated Nuthatch on the log feeder compared with the…

Right-side up pose of the Carolina Chickadee on the the log feeder.
 

The White-breasted Nuthatch is resident in this area throughout the year. 

Identification resource:

All About Birds: White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) 

Related posts:   

- At The Feeders: Pine Warbler (Setophaga pinus/Dendroica pinus*) 

- At The Feeders: Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula)  

- At The Feeders: Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) 

- At The Feeders: Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus)  

- At The Feeders: Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata/Dendroica coronata*) 

- At The Feeders: Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)  

- At The Feeders: Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) 

- At The Feeders: Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)  

- Birds In An Ice Storm 

- Snow Day And Hungry Birds

At The Feeders: Pine Warbler (Setophaga pinus/Dendroica pinus*)

March 17th, 2014. We installed a couple of log feeders in mid-December, 2013. Our inspiration came from a log feeder at the Ontario FeederWatch Cam sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that was visited regularly by a Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus). 

Within a day or so of installation, Downy Woodpeckers (Picoides pubescens) began to feed at these logs and, within a few days, other birds began to investigate the logs. 

I first spotted the Pine Warbler (Setophaga pinus/Dendroica pinus*) on February 2^nd, feeding on the ground with the Chipping Sparrows (Spizella passerina) and the American Goldfinches (Spinus tristis). 

But then I saw it was on the log feeders. It is very adept at perching on the logs to feed, occasionally alone...  

or, peacefully, in the company of other birds. 

Perched on a branch near the log feeders. 

It also fed at a suet block attached to a platform feeder alone on many occasions, and rarely,...

 

in the company of other birds.

The Pine Warbler would come to the feeders several times a day but I haven’t seen it since March 10^th in spite of the cold, wet weather. It’s resident in the Southeast throughout the year, but we might not see it again until next Winter. 

Identification resource: 

All About Birds: Pine Warbler (Setophaga pinus)

*Integrated TaxonomyInformation System 

Related posts:   

- At The Feeders: Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) 

- At The Feeders: Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)  

- At The Feeders: Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) 

- At The Feeders: Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata/Dendroica coronata*) 

- At The Feeders: Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) 

- At The Feeders: Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)  

- At The Feeders: Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 

- Birds In An Ice Storm  

- Snow Day And Hungry Birds