This article doesn’t have a neat conclusion. I’ve been observing birds in our yard lately (Early September, 2006).
I noticed that two cardinals who seemed to be “daring” each other to engage in “dangerous” behavior. The first cardinal was a juvenile and the second appeared to be a young adult (as judged by the color of their beaks).
First the juvenile cardinal landed in the dish and just sat there seemingly to wait for the Dove to do something. When the dove continued to eat peacefully, the juvenile cardinal took two or three pecks at the sunflower seed and then flew off. A second cardinal arrived almost immediately. It too waited a moment or two (but less time than the first) and then it took one peck at the seeds and flew off
It doesn’t sound like very strange behavior unless you consider what Cardinals typically do.
Cardinals don’t typically like to share the food dish with other birds — particularly larger ones. (They will occasionally tolerate finches). As it happens, doves are usually peaceful. However, Doves are large for backyard birds and the mere act of raising a wing will scare off most birds and animals. Raising the wing makes the Dove look large and the down stroke of a dove wing carries quite a bit of force. Squirrels even avoid doves unless they are really hungry. (Oddly, house finches will routinely join doves). There isn’t much space left after an adult dove gets in the feed dish, so cardinals avoid them. So the first thing that made the above observation strange was the mere act a cardinal of landing in the dish with the dove. The fact that two did it in quick succession was more than doubly unusual.
Cardinals usually take quite a while eating in a sunflower dish. Some birds (Chickadees and Blue Jays for example) will come to the dish, grab a seed or two and then go off to eat elsewhere. That’s because these birds have to exert quite an effort to crack the seed in order to eat the heart. But Cardinals can easily crack the seed in their mouths. When Cardinals encounter sunflower seed, they frequently will sit and gorge until they are full or until something comes along to frighten them. Taking only one or two bites is unusual for cardinals. The fact that the two birds did this in quick succession was also unusual.
It is not unusual for juvenile cardinals to engage in intimidation battles. They not only do it with others of their species, but at least on one occasion I observed a juvenile successfully face down a timid Jay. (Only to be scared off by a larger more intimidating Jay). At the time, I took this to be the foolishness of youth, but perhaps juvenile cardinals must ‘show their courage" some how. If so, it would surprise me, because cardinals don’t appear to be that socially conscious Perhaps it is some sort of pre-mating demonstration.
But as I said, don’t have a neat conclusion on this one.