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departed in opposite directions.
I understood the Robin fight, it seemed to be over a boundary line of the territory of one of the birds. For the remainder of the morning there were only two Robins in the yard and they were always together. I can only assume they are a mated pair. They were very companionable as they flew to first one maple tree then another. Later they searched for earthworms in the mowed area of the yard and stayed within three feet of each other.
I want to think this is the same pair that nested here last summer and had considerable success in reproducing themselves. The only way I could be sure of this would be to have captured the pair and placed a band on the leg of each.
I cannot, however, explain the Grackle battle. A noisy, aggressive group of these strutting birds has taken over the feeder and are much in evidence. They nest in the thicket far behind this property in a semi-colonial kind of arrangement. Grackles build their deep cups of nests close to each other and maintain separate feeding territories. Grackles prefer cedars and dense pines for their nests but will accept honeysuckle tangles if evergreens are not available. The feeder is far from their nesting area. I had decided it was some kind of no-man’s (or bird’s) — land, declared off limits for territorial fighting.
But the Grackle battle suggests I am wrong.
What provoked the fight? I do not know the answer to that and guessing would only be an exercise in anthropomorphism: projecting my own emotions into Grackle behavior.
As sudden, strong and gusty March winds announced the turning of the year from winter to spring, fighting among birds also signals the change. Most birds proclaim their aggressiveness through song that sounds innocent to us but has a very different message for males of the same species. As I have mentioned before in these columns, interpreting bird behavior is a tricky business. Is it possible that bird battles are as irrational as those between humans?.
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