There was once a female junco that not only tapped on my front window at
feeder-filling time, but she'd call to me as well. And she had another talent
that was of great benefit to her flock. Although juncos can't ordinarily eat
anything as large as peanuts, she took care of that. She'd fly up to the high
peanut feeder I had for the jays, carefully select one that had a cracked shell
or an open end and shove it down to the driveway. Then she'd peck away at it,
until she got a kernel to come out. By hammering at that rapidly, she'd break
off little chunks that were bite-sized.
The rest of the flock watched her intently and then zoomed in to gobble up the
bits. She'd usually break open about three a day. Although every other bird
that ate the bits had watched her, I never saw any other one of them even
attempt to reduce a peanut down to edible pieces. If she could have passed that
trick on to just one of them, it might have marked the beginning of a
behavioral change for the species.
If you provide a type of birdseed that has bits of peanuts in it, watch the
juncos and see if they eat them. Or try breaking up whole nuts and putting the
pieces with the seeds.
Steve McDonald
http://www.ipernity.com/home/305883
http://flickr.com/photos/22121562@N00/
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https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=229807ce52dd4fe0
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