The bully in the bird feeder
Evanston RoundTable, Feb. 22, 2023 A year or two ago we bought a clear plastic bird feeder and attached it outside on our family room window. The idea was to observe our avian friends at close hand, to admire their grace and beauty and appreciate their swift and incredibly intricate landing maneuvers. We loved watching the delicate way they used their tongues to turn the seeds in their mouths and their beaks to crush them to get at the nuts. It was a wonderful education into these ubiquitous flying creatures, our lifelong if mostly unobserved and underappreciated aerial friends. How marvelous to see them so close, within a few feet. The primary visitors to our bird feeder are local sparrows and a pair of cardinals, male and female, whom we believe have long nested in our backyard. House sparrows, we learn, are native to and abundant in Illinois. They are, to my taste, rather dull-looking birds, even with their striated gray and brown plumage. The large, long-tailed cardinal is the state bird of Illinois, and the male cardinal is one of the most beautiful birds in the avian constellation, with a brilliant red crown and chest and black mask and … Continue reading →