Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 16:46:05 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Tom Beal Subject: Picking his fights carefully MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Our resident No. Cardinal has blue and red color bands, courtesy of the Smithsonian. He aggressively defended our backyard and its feeders most of the year. He did not tolerate another male during the spring, summer and into the fall. As the year goes on, either because of hunger or lessening of the territorial urge, more and more cardinal congregate around our feeders, up 20 males at once time during severe weather. No longer trying to defend against this onslaught, the banded male has taken to attacking his reflection in the sliding glass door. A male also did this last winter. I am not sure if it was the same bird, the red/blue cardinal was banded only this spring. Cardinals often attack their reflection, but isn't that usually during the breeding season? Is this guy just frustrated and attacking the only male who can't 'fight back'? Tom Beal Glenn Dale, MD PG Co ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================