[obol] flickers and sunflower seed WAS odd birds

[Marcia Marvin]

OBOL -

At my previous address, on the tray feeder located in front of my  
kitchen window I would often see flickers stop and feed (although  
moreso in the winter than in the spring).  They perched on the side  
of the tray and snaked their very long woodpecker tongues around in  
the sunflower chips, and they definitely seemed to be eating the seed  
and not bugs.  They also perch on my tube feeder now, which is fun to  
watch, but harder for them to feed from, and I don't get to see their  
tongues anymore:-(.

Marcia


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From: "Bobbett Pierce" <ensatina3 AT hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 02 Jun 2007 12:08:23 -0400
This is my observation on one of the species Dan talked about:  
Flickers have
dumped sunflower seed out of my feeders for years and would gulp down
something every few minutes.  I had assumed they were looking for  
insects of
some sort, but studied the activity closely to see if I could tell  
what it
was they were actually finding.  Thru binocs, I could see they were  
picking
out sunflower seeds with no hulls, a few of which are always in a  
batch of
regular seed.  I started buying hullless seed and adding some to the  
whole
seed.  The dumping slowed considerably because they were finding more to
eat.  Previously they would throw a half-gallon of seed on the ground  
in a
short time in their quest for hullless seeds (I have a big tube feeder).
Flickers still dump seed, but the amount tossed aside now is  
tolerable.  I
do it year around -- a pair comes daily right now.  I don't put out a  
feeder
with only hulless seed for the flickers because it costs too much and it
would disappear in minutes -- it's popular with so many species.  Little
birds get it in winter only, in one small feeder.   Lona Pierce, Warren


--
Marcia Marvin * mmarvin at spiritone.com * SW Portland, OR, USA