Speaking of breeding birds: we had to rescue a hatch-year brown thrasher
coming to a suet feeder at our house in suburban Westerville.

The bird was feeding on a suet cake by leaning into the top of our wire-cage
type feeder.  An adult grackle (with hatch-year bird in tow) came to the
same feeder and, in a slight bird altercation, pecked the thrasher on the
head.  The thrasher promptly dropped inside the feeder.  Unfortunately,
getting in was easier than getting out, as the openings everywhere except
the top are just a little too small for a thrasher-sized bird.

Fear must be a powerful motivator, though.  When I took the feeder off the
pole (with thrasher still inside), planning to open the top of the feeder,
the thrasher squeezed through a side opening after all and flew to a nearby
tree.  So far as I could tell, only his pride was injured.

It's hard to blame the grackle too much for her role in this sequence.  The
thrasher had been feeding earlier when the grackle approached and had
decided that any large bird would do as a provider -- the thrasher was
begging from the grackle, who perhaps was annoyed at being mistaken for the
parent of a mere brown bird (not a handsome iridescent one).....

--
Bill Heck

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