Junco versus Finch and the Sunflower Seed Wingding

I looked out the window this morning, and discovered it was snowing like anything.  Big, fat, wet snowflakes.  I pulled up WeatherBug, found a winter weather advisory, and saw that we could expect 2-5" of snow.  It was 36°, but the snow was still starting to accumulate.  By the time it quit snowing, the precipitation was at the high end of the spectrum, but a lot of it melted as it fell.

A whole lot of little birds were clustered around the feeders -- and the goldfinches, in particular, were fussing like hoydens and jackanapes at the feeders.  What sounded like friendly little chirps, tweets, and twitters were actually altercations, squabbles, and wingdings, heh heh.

Dark-eyed junco minding his own business, until --

-- along came a feisty goldfinch who screamed at him rather rudely.

Considering...

He looks at the offensive little twit... sizes him up... and then...

CHIRP!!  TWEET!!!  BZZZTCHIPCHIPCHIP!!!

A temporary truce is called.

Nom nom nom nom nom

A fellow finch-in-arms, uh, finch-in-wings, dive-bombs and spoils the truce.

But Finch One hangs onto his quarry,

... and Finch Two is left contemplating his wrongs.

Yet another goldfinch makes an inroad...

... but Finch One keeps his seed safe under his foot.

Back to the trough.  There are enough seeds for everyone, birds!  Really, there are.

The house finches look on in some amazement at the smaller, roudier, and less mannerly goldfinches.

If your beak is too full to peck an intruder, rake him with your talons!

Finch One comes skidding in and snatches a seed right out of his feathered fellow's beak.

And then, to add insult to injury, he squawks in his face!

A-comin' and a-goin' -- while Finch One scolds in disapproval.

Ah-ha! -- he may have met his match here!  A dark-eyed junco watches the uproar.

One bold little goldfinch tells the larger but more docile junco a thing or two.

Finch One actually pecked another goldfinch and sent him sliding right off the slippery banister.  You can still see his foot and tail, heading south.  Finch One peers over the edge:  "Ha!  Took care of you!"

This house finch was working away at husking a sunflower seed when a husk from overhead landed right beside him.  He tipped his head and stared at it:  "Huh?"

Female house finch

Finally, the male house finch has had enough, and tells his birdie pals to kindly quit screeching at the table.

The End