[mou] spirited v. thrush

[alyssa]

Actually, these thrushes are known to be very defensive at their feeding 
stations, especially males. They even have a special display (from All About 
Birds):

a.. Males, but only rarely females, defend and maintain small feeding 
territories around bird feeders. They are aggressive and dominate many other 
feeder bird species.


a.. To defend a territory a male may first give a Tail-Up display where the 
bird faces away from the intruder and holds its tail up to show off the 
gray-and-white patterned undertail coverts. If the intruder keeps coming the 
male may turn around and give the Head-Forward display with the wings fanned 
to show off the orange wing stripe and the tail cocked up over the head 
showing the white corners.

I thought that was pretty interesting...

Alyssa DeRubeis

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "linda" <birds@moosewoods.us>
To: <mnbird@lists.mnbird.net>; <mou-net@cbs.umn.edu>
Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2007 8:35 PM
Subject: [mou] spirited v. thrush


> The varied thrush was observed again
> today at the Eleanor/Edgecumbe site at 11:30 AM, a lifer for Rob. We first 
> saw him in the maple tree that stands between the little spruce and the 
> lilac bushes at the edge of the yard. He then flew down to eat under the 
> feeders for about 10 minutes.
> To our surprise, he was very assertive in dealing with house sparrows; a 
> few different times, he chased sparrows out of his personal eating space, 
> holding his own though outnumbered. He remained alert while feeding, 
> raising his head and glancing around regularly. After a short period, he 
> flew off low to the east, past the garage, toward the yard across the 
> alley.
>
> Linda Whyte
>
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