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Wasteful WB Nuthatch (1 Viewer)

jward

Well-known member
Anyone else notice this phenomenon? He approaches the feeder (squirrel proof, squared cylinder with sliding mesh cage on outside), hangs, and picks out seed after seed, drops them and then finally settles on one and flies away. I can't be sure, but it almost seems that he is trying to stash some of them between the mesh and the plastic tube.

Anywho.. he's keeping the squirrels and mourning doves happy!!

jw
 
One Nuthatch here used to do the same thing, I just thought it was a youngster not too well able to eat and gather at the same time. Later it stopped doing it!
 
I see Eurasian Nuthatches (sitta europaea) doing this nearly every time I visit a feeding station. I guess it's just a Nuthatch habit, whether it is American or British or continental Nuthatches.
 
The 3 cousins as I call them nuthatch,titmouse and chickadee all do that grab a sunflower seed and run.The best I've seen was a nuthatch doing this and run to a tree to cashe the seeds into woodpecker scars in the trunk while a brown tree creeper followed him up the trunk and yanked everyone out.
Sam
 
That's true about the 3 cousins. I have a group of regulars, three titmouse and two chickadee, who love to pick and run. Thankfully they only pop up to another branch to pound away at the hulls. Th NH seems to fly further befor eating.

Thanks all! I appreciate the stories.
 
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