Common Nature

This afternoon at the cake feeder:



A male starling (you can tell by the corners of the beak - boys are blue, girls are pink - seriously) attacks the cake feeder. I think he's pretty young, firstly because he's still got a lot of brown in his plumage (mature males have a beautiful 'oil on water' sheen to them), but also because he's clearly not had a lot of experience perching on a feeder as he eats. He was flapping and making the feeder bang around the entire time, until he finally managed to get some cake.


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A pair of House Sparrows out for diner. Instead of eating through the openings in the feeder, they both stuck their entire bodies down inside to get at the cake.

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A White Breasted Nuthatch strikes a dramatic pose. No nuts will go unhatched while he's on the job! For whatever reason, these guys like to perch upside down a lot. You can see the big talon on the rearward-facing toe that lets him dig in and get a secure grip.