[NatureNS] Downy Woodpecker Behaviour

Date: Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:09:06 -0300
From: Eleanor Lindsay <kelindsay@eastlink.ca>
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
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I have seen downeys do this on a number of occasions at my tube seed 
feeders - and I certainly find them surprisingly unfazed by my standing 
at eye level or walking slowly past the feeder as close as a couple of 
feet from them.

Eleanor Lindsay,
Seabright, St Margarets Bay




certainly D W Bridgehouse wrote:
>
> This morning at our birdfeeder which has black sunflower seed I 
> witnessned (to me) a strange occurrence. Before I ID the bird – there 
> was a bird perched vertical on the feeder instead the usual horizontal 
> on the provided perches. The bird took a single sunflower seed to a 
> crevice between two branches in the same tree and began hammering away 
> to break open the sunflower seed . The bird was a Downy Woodpecker. As 
> I was walking to the garbage bin he stayed there unbothered at a 
> distance of about 6 feet away .
>
> Is this strange behaviour for a wood pecker ? I have never seen before 
> nor heard of this behaviour at seed feeders !
>
> I know wood peckers will hack into silkmoth cocoons in winter to get 
> at the juicy pupa as a snack .
>
> If any one or other birders can offer their thoughts / observations / 
> knowledge on this - I would be interested in reading ?
>
> Thanks in advance , Derek B
>
> ******************
>
> Derek W. Bridgehouse
>
> Dartmouth, NS
>
> d.bridgehouse@ns.sympatico.ca
>

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