BOOTHBAY REGISTER • December 31, 2025
With the recent snow has come an increase in bird activity at our feeders and the small patches of open ground we’ve cleared under them. When all the birds are trying to access the limited space available, it’s not surprising that there seems to be more situations in which one species displaces another and takes over the feeding opportunity. Researchers asked participants in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project FeederWatch to record the winners and losers of such competitive interactions. It won’t shock even the most casual of bird observers to learn that they found that the largest birds were at the top of the list of most dominant. ~ Jeff and Allison Wells