Which birds are the biggest jerks at the feeder?

[Tanuki]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/11/28/bird-feeder-pecking-order/

"The interactions between birds in the park or at your backyard feeder may look like chaos, but they’re actually following the subtle rules of a hidden avian social order.

Armed with a database of almost 100,000 bird interactions, experts known as ornithologists have decoded that secret pecking order and created a continentwide power ranking of almost 200 species — from the formidable wild turkey at the top to the tiny, retiring brown creeper at the bottom.

Their work illuminates an elaborate hidden hierarchy: Northern mockingbirds and red-bellied woodpeckers are pugnacious for their size, but both would give way if a truly dominant bird like an American crow descended upon the feeder. Tiny hummingbirds can’t afford to lose precious seconds of feeding time and thus punch way above their weight, while the pileated woodpecker, whose fearsome bill and impressive build gives it the aspect of a holdover pterodactyl, actually proves docile for its size.

Among the most common feeder visitors, the American crow is king, while tiny chickadees get pushed around by just about everybody. The oblivious mourning dove outweighs many rivals but proves relatively peaceful. And lively goldfinches love to squabble but are limited by their half-ounce size."...(more)

[GusBob]

1. That's easy in these parts

Magpies

The best thing about them though is they will eat anything. Great way to dispose of fishguts

[Bayard]

2. Bluejays

They chase off everyone else when they show up. Never seen a crow on any of our feeders.

[Metaphorical]

6. Bluejays and Crows are closely related

We have both in our yard, and usually the bluejays tend to dominate crows and smaller corvids.

[El Supremo]

3. Crows don't use my feeder.

We have lots of them and they are large. The biggest pigs are the Finches. They stay at the feeder a long time and some actually wallow in the seeds. The doves just eat off the ground around the feeder. The Flickers are the messiest, probably because their very long beaks are better designed for pecking out bugs and not eating big seeds. The Nuthatches and Chickadees just make a brief landing then fly away. Most birds are afraid of the Bluejays. I also have an occasional Downy Woodpecker who likes the suet.

I put up my feeder for the first time in many years. I forgot how entertaining it is.

[elleng]

4. Thanks!

Sharing this @ Birders.

[Archae]

5. I've seen videos of Chickadees killing mice.

They don't get "pushed around by everybody."

[Harker]

8. Chickadees are born killers.

They're just polite.

[2naSalit]

7. Grackles...

In the northern Illinois area

Magpies in the Rocky Mtn. west, Bluebirds in the high mountain areas in the Rockies where there aren't many magpies

Blue jays in the northeast

All bets are off when the Sharp-shinned or Cooper's Hawks show up.

[Ocelot II]

15. Last summer I saw a Cooper's hawk snatch a cardinal off one of my feeders.

Otherwise blue jays are the bullies.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. I tried really hard to download that chart with the birds, but couldn't.

[FloridaBlues]

10. Blue jays are the loudest. Small black birds eat the most in my feeder

[MurrayDelph]

11. In northwestern-most Oregon

If you're talking sue cakes, it's starlings.

If you're talking seed feeders, it's jays.

[Harker]

12. Pine Siskins are largely jerks.

We have a female Merlin that shows up for a couple days a year. Its last victim was a Blue Jay it killed in front of us and hauled to the edge of our yard. It left a pile of bloody feathers and a beak.

[Tanuki]

13. I have occasionally seen a pile of feathers like that and assumed it

was done by a cat....it never occurred to be that the culprit could be a pine siskin!
😱

[Harker]

14. A very large, particularly vicious one, maybe. n/t

[Tanuki]

19. Lol ... I initially misread your post and thought you were saying a pine siskin

killed the jaybird! Only after you responded did I re-read it and realize you were talking about a merlin! That makes a lot more sense!
🤣

[Harker]

21. That's a pretty scary image there. n/t

[yardwork]

16. Starlings are the biggest bullies at my feeders.

[electric_blue68]

17. Interesting! I loved the way they wrote it, too! 😄

[jcgoldie]

18. starlings are some assholes

sparrows will bully out your martins also.

[lastlib]

20. This summer at the pre-flight frenzy at the hummingbird feeders......

I saw one of the customers back off the flowers, and let another hummer in--then proceeded to climb onto the new arrival's back and beat it with his bill!! The new arrival, clearly dazed from the assault, nearly fell onto the porch! but recovered somewhat, enough to finally fly away for a later try. It was hysterical in a way.