Monday, January 20

My camera says it was 8:09 am when I took this picture of a male Red-bellied Woodpecker enjoying some suet for breakfast.

Little did I know what fun I would have watching a bird fight during the next four minutes – after a European Starling decided he also wanted to have breakfast at the same suet block.

It got a bit noisy.

The female woodpecker (left) joined the mix while the male rested on the upper right.

The female ate in relative peace for a short time.

When the male returned to the suet, the fight intensified.

Ouch!

Now, maybe he will stay away.

That hurt. I think it may be wiser to eat dropped suet from the ground.

Finally I have a bit of peace.

It didn’t take long before the starling wasn’t satisfied with suet droppings and the fight started again.

Finally – as far as I could tell – the fight ended when the starling gave up and the woodpecker ate in peace.