Bullying doves

[UKBirder]

Strange thing happened yesterday afternoon. I was in the back garden and could hear a Cardinal so I thought I'd try to imitate it and perhaps call it in.

To my surprise, it was a good enough impersonation to bring the bird in followed by a male House Sparrow and two Mourning Doves that crash-landed right next to me. There seemed to be an adult and a Juvenile if the pale fringes on the mantle feathers are anything to go by.

Anyway the juv was semi trapped by the downspout and struggled to get free. When it did, it landed a few yards away and was 'beat up' by the other bird for a good 20 seconds or so before they calmed down.

It must be the heat!

Dave

[Raven11:11]

We have 1 specific Mourning Dove that bullies all of the other birds, she is boss. It's really quite fun to see her chase all of them away, pecking at them , whense is full she sits on the top of our fence and then the smaller birds come back and eat.

[Dr. John]

We see this kind of behaviour happen a lot in our backyard too. For such placid looking birds, they can get pretty aggressive with each other.

-John

[Raven11:11]

Hi John, what is the name of the bird on your avatar?  The small black one??

[Dr. John]

It's junco - just an image I found while surfing around. They come to our backyard every year and we love them.

-John

[Raven11:11]

Junco, thanks, we have 2 of them here all day too ... since we switched our bird feed to include more sunflower / peanuts they have not left.  The Blue Jays & Cardinals are back twice  daily  too!!