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*)