This morning I watched a flock of eared doves feed from piles of feed laid out daily by a street vendor.
Even though there were three heaping piles of food set apart, one jerkwad in the flock would not let *anyone else* get close to any of them, while he was feeding from one.
He'd rather stop feeding and drive them away from other food than just enjoy his own take.
π Even in our worst tendencies as humans, we still aren't exceptional, eh?
We're just better at being selfish at scale.
some birds are jerks too. the mourning doves around here are pretty chill about feeding together, but occasionally there's oneπ
At my feeder I notice that Goldfinches are total jerks, just sitting and gorging on the feeder, pecking at anyone else who comes.
Chickdees and Titmice take turns, each taking one seed then flying to a branch to crack it open.
Cardinal pairs also take turns, one feeding while the other keeps watch.
yes, some species are very quarrelsome indeed. it's fascinating watching how they differ.
Yes, I am happy to feed them all, but I definitely have my favorites :)
yes, it's hard to be totally impartial.
@MLClark you'll see that with horses as well. Even if there's plenty of piles of hay, there's one who has to drive away others if they want that pile.
I watched an elderly Shetland pony mare bully a two-year-old off of a hay pile (the young horse was lying down). Pony just kept pushing the young horse with her nose until the young horse got up and left. Then she started eating off of *that* pile. Somehow it was the pile she wanted, and she passed unattended piles for that one.
Oh, great example! Thank you so much for sharing this. It's awful, but I snort-laughed all the same! What strange creatures we all are.
@MLClark yeah, there's a lot to be learned from watching a fairly stable herd of mares with a handful of geldings. Good thing that pony is a pony...full-sized, she'd be a real pain.
@MLClark
Birds have no problem eating their own either. I saw a couple of pigeons fighting over some abandoned KFC meal, and they were really ripping into that chicken.