Thursday 11 June 2009

Male Chaffinch Feeding Another

I just happened to catch sight of this. A male Chaffinch kept taking seeds from the lawn and flying up to another to feed it. I can't be sure whether the second one is a juvenile or his lady friend. What I found curious was the way the second bird kept moving its head from side to side. I managed to get three of these short episodes on video before the birds flew off together.




Later in the day it seemed the same pair of Chaffinches were either side of the feeder when the juvenile / female took off and flew round to the male with what appears to be a seed in its beak.

Chaffinches

Yesterday there was a Great Tit at the peanut feeder which was determined to get one particular piece but seemed to end up dropping most of it before changing its mind. A Robin spent a while trying to balance on the smooth metal perch on a seed feeder. After several tries it eventually managed to fly off with a seed.

7 comments:

  1. Great observations of their behaviour John.
    And wasn't that Great Tit determined to get that nut.

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  2. It appeared such unusual behaviour, Keith. It doesn't really show up fully just how much head waving the female (?) was doing and the poor male just wanting to hand (beak) over a bit of food.
    The Great Tit was really giving it some welly!
    It's fascinating just how much behaviour can be seen from a kitchen window.

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  3. "It's fascinating just how much behavior can be seen from a kitchen window." Yes definitely when you have a yard as full of interesting birds as yours!
    The video is really good at showing the interesting bird behavior and the still photos add to the interest.

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  4. Thank you Mick. It is only this year that I have had so many birds visiting - probably the number of different feeders I now maintain and the number of bushes and trees in the immediate surroundings.

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  5. The Chaffinch looks like a juvenile to me John, I was watching one here yesterday. I enjoyed the videos and the photo.

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  6. I think you are right there Jan. How do they ever get fed enough when they waggle their heads about all the time!

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  7. Hiya.
    What you saw with the chaffinches is amazing. I would say that the female is definately a juvinile, you can see it in her face and she is slightly fluffy at first. Wouldn't you think that the male world be her father or at least an adult? A father would be the one feeding the little chaffinch not another juvinile, well not that much at least.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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