Seen on Bird Feeder today

[dlminehart]

I've read that the male bird coloration is a function of what Darwin called "sexual selection." The females of a particular species prefer the males with colors or tails or head tufts or whatever, and the males that are preferred father the (similarly outfitted) offspring. In many cases, there's a tradeoff between what the females want and what predators find makes their life easier. E.g., peacocks' tails make them more vulnerable, cardinals' brilliant red makes it more visible, etc. There's a point of diminishing returns, I guess. But it's pretty well established that the females want the features. E.g., if you cut off 15% of a peacock's tail feather "eyes", that bird gets no peahens.

Turns out that the birds (or fish or bucks or whatever) with the desireable features also tend to be healthiest, so the females' choices in decor are reinforced with good providers and healthier offspring.

[gerti]

Lot's of cardinals here. One couple has been breeding on a hanging basket right in front of our living room window several years in a row now. Three little chicks this time around, the last one left the nest yesterday. He was a scrawny one and had us worried a bit.

Sadly they seem to live elsewhere, so we never see the young ones once they leave the nest. But we do see young ones from other nests in another part of the yard.

[cabinetman]

Anybody have plans for a good squirrel proof wooden bird feeder?

Loring

I don't have any plans per se, but I've included here an excerpt from one of my previous threads:

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I now have two German Shepherds at home and the smaller one 80 lbs, is a voracious hunter. Her name is Shadow and she has an ongoing bout with a squirrel we named Louie. Louie is one smart squirrel. We had a hanging bird feeder from a tree limb, that Louie would scurry down the rope, get food, and climb back up. Well, I fixed that by hanging that birdfeeder from monofilament and put grease on the line. We watched from the house as Louie started down the monofilament and slid down and crashed into the roof of the bird feeder. He tried to get back up but couldn't get a grip, and we were roaring with laughter. Shadow was below the feeder just barking and waiting for Louie to fall. He didn't have any choice but to jump to the ground. Lot of loose dirt flying and Louie ran around the tree with Shadow inches behind, lost his footing and shadow won. I called her out and put her in the house. Went out to see Louie, and he wasn't moving. Got a shovel and went over to take care of Louie, but he was gone (played dead).
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This is a wood birdhouse. I concocted a "china hat" above the birdhouse, and allowed it to be fairly loose, so that when Louie does attempt to drop to it, it spills him to the ground.
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[Tom Slick]

Great Shot!
The males have to attact the females so they get the fancy duds. the females are dull so they camoflage well when sitting on the nest. Babies are dull until they are adults for camoflage as well.

[L. D. Jeffries]

Great shot LCHIEN. I feed the birds all year long and so we have three nesting pairs of these bueautful birds. As far as the fancy dress'..well us males usually are the fancy ones, aren't we? LOL
PS: A 50# bag of black oil sunflower seed last me about one month, pretty hefty food bill but its sure worth it as I have about a doZen different varities that call our place "home".