Just had a female Hairy Woodpecker hitch herself up and around the suet
holder attached to the side of a hopper feeder, and nail a Mourning Dove
who was sunning itself on the roof, about 6" away fro the suet. The MODO
had her tail toward the woodpecker and never saw it coming. At least 6
or 8 pieces of down & feathers flew off the MODO's butt in a poof and
the MODO exploded off the feeder. The woodpecker went back to eating suet.
We frequently see birds posture and threaten in an effort to get or
preserve position on the feeders, and even a bit of tussling between
birds of the same species sometimes, but hadn't seen one actually attack
another bird that didn't appear to be competing or crowding. The MODOs
don't mess with the woodpeckers intentionally but this one appeared not
to be aware there might be a problem until it felt that nail-gun beak
hit it. Looked like a painful lesson.
Alicia
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