On Yellow Finches, Red Birds, and Doves - Observations on the Natural Order Within the Animal Kingdom
This morning, the first yellow finch of the season appeared on the thistle feeder. Even now, either he or another member of his family sits there, taking bites, and looking around.
Finches eat hanging upside down from a perch, and their feeders are constructed with this in mind to ensure that other birds cannot take food from their feeders.
They come and go very regularly, as though they have a calendar mounted on the wall of their nest. They arrive the first of April and depart at the end of September. As I understand it, they winter in South America.
The daddy finch is bright yellow with a black crown on his head and black stripes on his wing feathers. Like most mother birds, The mother finch is more subdued in color, leaning toward grayed shades of yellow with gray striping.
The daddy finch is highly protective of the mother finch. Last year, a bird of another species kept annoying a mother bird while she ate. She attempted to shoo it away, but it would not leave. She flew up to the nest and got the father bird, who flew down and gave that other bird a piece of his bind – and beak. Then, he summoned the mother bird down and kept watch while she ate.
Segueing to the Habits of Other Species
I’ve noticed the same behavior in other species. A mother and daddy red bird were dining on one side of the feeder when a sparrow landed on the other side. It made the mother red bird nervous, so the daddy red bird “shooed” away the sparrow, then stood in place to make sure the sparrow didn’t return while the mother red bird finished eating.
Our doves also arrive in pairs. From all appearances, marriage is quite commonplace in the animal kingdom, and monogamy is the rule, not the exception. Now, whether that monogamy is for a season or a lifetime, I really couldn’t say, except to note that there definitely is a natural order to things.
