That one junco at the feeder taught me more than 3 field guides

Last winter I had a dark-eyed junco that kept showing up with a bent left leg, and I spent two weeks chasing it around my yard in Ohio before I finally sat still and watched it feed with the house sparrows. Turns out the limp was nothing, it just favored the right side of the tray feeder because the wind kept blowing seed off the left. Has anyone else had a bird that made them slow down and just observe instead of grabbing the binoculars right away?

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reese_perry620d ago

Wait, actually that junco probably had something going on with its leg. Birds that survive with a limp usually have it from birth or an old injury, and they learn to work around it. You said it favored the right side because of wind, but juncos are ground feeders mostly. They hit tray feeders when snow covers everything else. The real lesson there might be that the bird knew that spot was safest from predators, not that it was about the seed blowing. I had a white-throated sparrow that always stood on the exact same branch, and I thought it was a personality thing. Turned out that branch had a clear view of my cat’s window. So maybe your junco was just picking the spot with the best sightlines, not the one with the most seed. Still, you’re right about slowing down. Field guides tell you what a bird is, but sitting still tells you what it’s doing.