Today at my birdfeeder

Everyone has seen woodpeckers at their feeders ... mostly the small ones Downy and Hairy. The woodpeckers go for the suet of course but will on occasion eat sunflower seed of there is no suet available.

This little Downy has been spending a lot of time at the sunflower feeder. Like the non-finches, he grabs a seed and then flies off.

We are all familiar with how the Chickadee manages to get the heart of a sunflower seed without having the best equipment for shell cracking. The Chickadee has a pointed bill rather than the crushing bill of the finches. It places the seed between it's toes while sitting on a tree branch and pecks a hole in the shell of the seed until it gets to the 'meat inside'.

Nuthatches do pretty much the same except they jam the seed into a crack in the tree bark and hammer away until they get inside.

I observed this Downy Woodpecker that made a small cavity in a nearby branch. He would get one seed at a time and then jam it into the cavity before smashing it to smithereens.

This is a very inefficient and energy wasting strategy compared to the finches that can sit on the feed and eat to their heart's content. Their beaks and tongues are perfectly adapted to this purpose. I feel bad for this Downy so I will get my suet feeders out tomorrow.

Here's my Downy getting a sunflower seed.

And placing it in the hole that he excavated.

Checking out the Photographer

Before gettting another seed.

 

This Red-breasted Nuthatch is a visitor from the North that also takes the sunflower seeds away. I have yet to catch him in the act of eating.

 But he does like to play hide and seek with a Purple Finch.

This one.

Chickadees are way under rated a 'fun' birds. Who else would do this.

 Or this

Finches just sit and snack, Their powerful beaks crack open the soft shell of the black sunflower seeds and extract the inside with their strong tongues.

What's this guy doing here  .... he should have gone South by now.

Finally the master eater of seeds on a 'squirrelproof' feeder.