The Lincolnshire Bird Club

I have two main feeding stations in my garden - one in the open and one under a large Hawthorn tree. The one in the open has always attracted more birds but recently most birds have ignored the one under the tree almost entirely and emptied the other very quickly. Today I discovered the reason - the resident male Blackcap zealously guards the one under the tree and doesn't allow any other bird to get near it, launching full out attacks on any transgressor - even Collared Doves! Anyone seen behaviour like this before from a Blackcap or any other small bird for that matter?

David

The single Fieldfare I had was very protective of any fruit I put out under the magnolia shrub/tree and any bird that came anywhere near got it's full attention! I was watching on one occasion when it had a right go at a Collared Dove and Wood Pigeon plus owt else daft enough to get to close.

Regards

John

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GETTING OLD HAS IT'S ADVANTAGES BUT I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT THEY ARE lol

I think Blackcap aggression at birdtables is quite frequent, and it's been an aspect of wintering Blackcap behaviour covered by the recent BTO survey (see e.g. http://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/ ... ow_res.pdf).

Andrew