UKC

Hello
I have various bird feeders in my garden (Eskdale Lake District) and for some reason the Yellowhammers appear far more comfortable ground feeding from the overspill. Some do venture to the feeder pegs but have to flap their wings to maintain position & do not look as well balanced as the tits & finches.
Is this a recognised aspect of the Yellowhammer physiology or feeding trait?

I am curious & I know there are bird experts on UKC

Mike

BTW there are a lot of them-I am not observing a specific individual

In reply to Tonto:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowhammer#Feeding


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Well done Chris. Thank you

But can anyone explain if their physiological makeup precludes them from being as nimble on the wing as their peers (by peers I can only reference bird size) or are they ground feeding by innate preference?

Regards

Mike

In reply to Tonto:

They are like dunnocks, nimble and quick in a hedgerow but struggle initially on a feeder. There doesn't seem to be any reason for it and if there were no spillage on the ground they would soon learn to feed from a perch. I have no-spill feeders because of rats and everything feeds while perched now, including yellowhammers and dunnocks. Unless there is a need, everything sticks to its niche.

In reply to Clarence:

I am not bothered by the overspill, the Yellowhammers benefit, as do pheasants & very recently the local hens have discovered the provisions available in my garden.

You are correct in asserting adaptation-I got one of these:-

http://www.haiths.com/the-helix-seed-feeder/

I really enjoy watching the birds congregating & feeding within the helix but they have exercised their judgement & it is a default resource. They only deploy this tactic when my vertical feeders have run out of seed.. ..& they subsequently quickly empty it.

Birds are smart little critters

Mike

In reply to Tonto:

Like Clarence, I think it is just an inate built in preference for feeding (and ability?) on the ground.
For some birds its the other way around tand they won't feed on the ground.

In reply to Tonto:
Yellowhammers natural habitat is dry open scrubland where they feed on seeds, primarily of weeds and grasses near the ground.

Chaffinches are naturally a more woodland species and feed on a variety of seeds both in trees and on the ground.

Tits are again woodland species and feed mainly on small insects with some seeds, most of which they find in the canopy.
'
Their behaviour on feeders mimics their natural feeding behaviour.

In reply to Ron Rees Davies:

Completely off the topic of yellowhammers, I saw a chough yesterday on Lochnagar while I was belaying. I love choughs.

In reply to Dave Perry:

Thanks Dave & all others that have been generous enough with their time to respond to my initial enquiry.

I conclude that yellowhammers prefer ground feeding-I will increase my budget for ground distributed seed so that they can compete with the hens & pheasants.

All good fun-watching the activity of different birds creates great enjoyment for me & I will alter my bird feeding regime accordingly.

Regards

Mike

In reply to Sophie G.:

Thanks for that Sophie,
Birds are marvellous .. ..Lochnagar is also no passenger when it comes to recognising a class act. I hope it wasn't a too chilly or prolonged belay.
Can choughs fly inverted like the ravens we have in the lakes?

Regards

Mike

In reply to Tonto:

Birds are very resourceful things.

There's a pair of blackbirds who visit my bird feeders, they have learnt to jump up from a bird table under one of the feeders and peck away for a second or two while doing a strange sort of flap-hover.

In reply to Tonto:
Hah, I think Simon spent longer belaying me than I spent belaying him... on a faffy day I am rubbish at getting gear out, and yesterday I had a faffy day. (Broken crampon, and I lost a 2 nut down a deep slot... which reminds me, I should post one to Simon.) Good fun though, even if I wasn't exactly climbing like a goddess.

Yes, choughs fly upside down, sideways, backwards, you name it.

In reply to Sophie G.:


One of my favourite ways to waste a few hours here in Chamonix is to go to the top of the Aiguille du Midi with a bag of old croissants and feed the choughs. They'll happily eat out of your hand once they get to know you, but it's much more fun to lob a few crumbs off the viewing platforms and watch them swoop and dive in the howling winds, catching them in mid-flight. Their aerobatics are just beyond belief sometimes.

Unfortunately, I live in town at around 1000m, and I don't get choughs in the garden, only sparrows, tits, and blackbirds. It is a great source of sorrow for me.

In reply to Sophie G.:

Do you get Choughs around there usually? I thought that in Scotland they are pretty much exclusively in coastal areas, though I may well be wrong!

James

In reply to JamesRoddie:

Yes think more likely to be a raven - British choughs with red beak (as opposed to yellow beaked alpine chough) pretty much confined to Welsh coastal areas I believe.

In reply to steveb2006:

I'm pretty sure you also get them around Islay and the coast around there too, but I've never heard of them in mountainous areas of Scotland.

James

In reply to Tonto:
Pete T's reference to choughs refer to the alpine chough. Which from name gives away their favoured location. They are different from our UK choughs as has been pointed out.

Choughs occur along our western sea coasts include scotland but generally close to the coast and more frequently on the western isle.. I have never seen them inland except an isolated group living about 10 miles inland (a British isle's record) in southern Ireland where they are relatively common.

Lochnagar is far too inland for choughs. Not only that there preferred habitat from which they probe for insects etc., is very short grazed pasture which has never been improved. This kind of grazing really only exists in quantity along the coast where it is free of snow and the insects are within reach all years. This kind of pasture won't exist in the centre of the cairngorms.

So unfortunately I'd guess you saw ravens which feed on a wide variety of available food including carrion. They are not listed on the National Biodiversity Network website for that KM square, so I'd guess what Sophie saw was a raven - sorry!

In reply to Sophie G.:


We're onto you

In reply to Dave Perry:

Although still more common around the coast, Choughs are moving back inland in Snowdonia.

There has been a pair hanging around Crib Lem in the central carneddau for the last 12 months, as well as a group breeding around the Moelwyns and a few other sites.

In reply to Dave Perry:

It was probably just lost, might have been too embarrassed to ask for directions. You know how choughs can be.