Finch Fight Club
The other day while we were doing a bee inspection, I kept an eye on Mr. Neil's finch feeder--they were chock full of common redpolls and pine siskins. You can see some of the tracking of pine siskins at Audubon's Great Backyard Bird Count website...interesting that they are calling it a winter finch invasion. I recall a few year ago when the thousands of great gray owls were in Minnesota, a couple of ornithologists' took me to to task for using the term "invasion" instead of "irruption" (apparently the proper term for ornithologists).
I did some digiscoping and digivideoing while at Mr. Neils and even set up a couple of different motion sensitive cameras. Check out some of the finch hissy fits I got with the Wingscapes camera:
Redpolls fighting!
More fighting!
And yet more fighting!
And even picking on a poor little junco! Here's a digivideo of some of the sqaubbling:
I did some digiscoping and digivideoing while at Mr. Neils and even set up a couple of different motion sensitive cameras. Check out some of the finch hissy fits I got with the Wingscapes camera:
Redpolls fighting!
More fighting!
And yet more fighting!
And even picking on a poor little junco! Here's a digivideo of some of the sqaubbling: Labels: Bird Feeding, digivideo, Wingscapes
posted by birdchick at 9:46 AM
7 Comments:
What is in the finch feeder in the video? It appears to be a thistle/niger/nyjer feeder, but the color of the seed looks more like sunflower kernels. I've never heard of using anything like that in such a feeder.
kinda reminds me of the water fountain in grade school - "come on you're taking too long; move; my turn; save some water for the fishies" "Back off i'm not done yet!" but maybe that was only at my school!
Mr. Neil's finches primarily get a mixture of fine sunflower hearts and thistle (aka niger or Nyjer). You can often find this listed at bird stores as "Thistle and Chips."
In the video we're using a mix called Finches Choice (some places call it Finch Delight) which is a combo of Thistle and Chips with canary seed, canola, rape, and shelled millet.
I like scattering those mixes on the ground for juncos and migrating sparrows too.
Thanks! I never knew anything else would fit through those itty-bitty holes.
I love how the junco in that shot is all "ehhhh, go away kid, ya botha me."
Those pine siskins are fierce! Watching them ward off all comers at my window feeder has been an unexpected pleasure of this year's irruption (that and their awesome call, which makes me smile every time I hear it). They've been singing a bit too (like raspy goldfinches).
First rule of Finch Fight Club is -- never talk about Finch Fight Club! The finches will be back later to make an example of you...
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