Chasing reflections
We've had a regular visitor
every day this week.
This yellow throated warbler
has claimed our shade
trellis as his own.
He seems to see his
reflection in the window and tries to chase it away.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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beautiful photo!
Wish you could make a bird calendar!!
Comment by
adrianne
— Fri May 12 16:56:15 2017
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Chasing reflections to defend territory
I had a similar encounter with a sparrow last spring. While it was wonderful to have him right at the window and singing all day (in between attacking the 'enemy/rival' reflected in the window), I became concerned when I realized he was spending all day every day at the window in battle. I looked up this behaviour online and found out that male birds will defend their territory against their own reflection for weeks or months, neglecting their other duties, not eating and also being so focused on the perceived threat that they don't pay attention to real threats like cats. Anyway, I ended up taping sheets of paper to the outside of windows he was focussed on so there was no longer a reflection and he went back to taking care of his little family.
Comment by
Kate
— Mon May 15 23:36:41 2017
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