Date:         Thu, 7 Dec 2000 14:25:18 -0800
Reply-To:     Maryland Birds & Birding <MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
Sender:       Maryland Birds & Birding <MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
From:         Daniel Edelstein <edelstein@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Hoarding Food Behavior/Red-bellied Woodpecker
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Many of you MDOspreyers who are already familiar with hoarding food
behavior, such as the red-bellied woodpecker's recent antics (as
reported here on 12/6, 12/7)........and the more notorious and common
example from a woodpecker in the same genus, the acorn
woodpecker......may be wondering:

Does the red-bellied woodpecker defend its stores of sunflower seeds
(similar to the way acorn woodpeckers defend their cache of
acorns)?.........According to one source, the Birder's Handbook,
red-bellied woodpeckers do NOT defend their stores.

Are any of the recent red-bellied witnesses noticing otherwise?

(Other woodpeckers, jays, Clark's nutcrackers and, even, nuthatches
also display "hoarding" behavior...........)

Daniel Edelstein
Germantown, MD
Montgomery County

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