Brown-headed Nuthatch and Pine Warbler – Not So Friendly Competition

After what seemed like a very long spell of cold, windy days, the weather here has gradually begun to warm up. Yesterday was still chilly, in the 40s, but sunny and with lighter winds. All day several American Goldfinches were active around the two feeders on the back deck, with three or four Tufted Titmice, a couple of Carolina Chickadees and a Carolina Wren hunting for whatever they could find in old plant pots and corners. Red-bellied Woodpeckers called their spring-like quurrrrr from the woods, and a Pine Warbler sang, making its way through the pines, changing the quality and mood of its song from time to time.

It’s probably the same Pine Warbler that visits the feeders out front regularly, a colorful male with warm yellow breast and soft streaks. Today I happened to be watching when a little Brown-headed Nuthatch – also a regular visitor – flew at the warbler aggressively. At first the Pine Warbler held its ground, but in only a second or two gave up and flew away, at least temporarily. Minor disputes like this are pretty common around the feeders, and the small but feisty Nuthatches don’t hesitate to take on larger birds and seem to win a confrontation more often than not.

The species account for Brown-headed Nuthatch in Birds of North America* notes that they are particularly competitive with Pine Warblers for food and foraging habitat in winter flocks. Studies seem to show that sometimes one wins and sometimes the other. The Nuthatches also try to chase off  Chickadees, Titmice and even a Downy Woodpecker sometimes – but most of the time they seem relatively content to share with these species.

*James H. Withgott and Kimberly G. Smith. 1998. Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusilla), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, ed.) Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Chipping Sparrow, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and a Cooper’s Hawk

Meanwhile, dozens of American Robins still are scattered all around our yard, feeding on the ground with White-throated Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, Mourning Doves and Cardinals, and eating the red berries of the Savannah hollies. A Northern Mockingbird perches on the mailbox or on a small pecan tree in the middle of a juniper thicket. And a solitary, very wary Hermit Thrush ventures out from the bushes now and then to feed with the other ground birds. We don’t seem to have as many Yellow-rumped Warblers as in previous winters, but a few are usually around, especially in the wax myrtles, and one comes fairly often to a feeder.

Late yesterday afternoon when I went out for a walk, the sky was soft blue and white, with a high, pale sliver of a crescent moon. It was chilly, temperature in the 40s, but not windy, and very pleasant. A Cardinal and a Bluebird sang. In the distance, Chickadee, Titmouse and House Finch also were singing. A dozen or more Chipping Sparrows, looking at first like little mounds of grass in motion, flew up from the roadside like sparks as I walked by. One perched on the edge of a dense green cedar, facing the sun. With warm reddish-brown crown, white stripe above the eye, brown-streaked wings and gray breast, a bird that so often looks anonymous in flocks came fully into focus.

Small birds were active all along the way, but the defining presence throughout the neighborhood right now is Robins – they’re everywhere, in every yard, in many trees, clucking, squeaking, running across the grass, pulling up worms, and often standing and looking around.

I stopped for a while by a thicket of weeds and bushes and trees near the corner of two streets, listening to the calls of White-throated Sparrows and Eastern Towhees, and also heard the chatter of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet – a welcome sound because these usually common winter residents have been hard to find here recently. A woodpecker flew to the trunk of a pecan tree, and turned out to be a young Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – its throat barely red, its black, white, gray and buff coloring blending in perfectly with the bark of the tree, and the feathers on its crown ruffled up into what looked a crest. It made quick scratching sounds as it hitched quickly around the tree and up in a spiral, stopping to check out some of the holes in several rings of holes around the trunk and branches.

When I had walked several yards further down the street, a Cooper’s Hawk came flying very low over the grass from the direction of trees in the thicket behind me. Sleek blue-gray, with russet breast, it only flapped once or twice, then sailed with wings outstretched, staying close to the ground. It glided over a low hill and disappeared into some large trees near a pond. A few minutes later, as I walked on, it flew from that same area and crossed the road ahead of me, flying now at treetop level up a hill and past three houses, disappearing this time further away, into more trees.

Northern Flicker and One Cedar Waxwing

A little further down the road, on my way back toward home, two birds perched in the top branches of a bare pecan tree, almost side by side, both facing the sun. One was a big handsome Northern Flicker, with long, sturdy bill, spotted breast, black breast-band and a scarlet crescent on the nape of its neck. Its brown, black and gray plumage was all ruffled up by the wind. The other was a solitary Cedar Waxwing, looking sleek and petite beside the Flicker, tawny brown and gray, with black mask and neat crest, it was completely undisturbed by the wind. Its belly glowed yellow in the low-slanting light. I could hear its single high, thin note, but could not hear or see any other Cedar Waxwings around, though I know there must have been others somewhere near.

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