Chickadees will often feed on carcasses. Fat is tough to find in winter, and protein is protein. In Minnesota, people often put out deer carcasses after hunting season to feed the birds.
Yeah- Iāve checked that junco (itās been there for days). And Iāve seen no maggots or anything. Completely clean of em, just a bunch of pretty much frozen meat. Or maybe I am just blind.
Iāve banded BCCHs before and let me tell youā¦ they do not give any Fs about anything. When you hold them properly in the birderās pose, they will find any little crack or imperfection in your fingers and attack it. If they (see? smell?) blood, like a dry crack or hangnail, itāll get pecked HARD.
Theyāre also the worst to try to get out of the mist nets because theyāll fight to get out and keep fighting until they either get out or get so tangled it kills them. I kept a crochet needle and nail clippers on me to try to save them but sometimes they donāt want to be saved, they fight. Almost every other bird chills enough to get out easily, but not BCCHs. Tufted Titmouses are a pain in the ass too, theyāre like BCCHs but do this sonic scream thing that hurts my ears. Reminds me of a bat.
Freaking Titmice. Theyāve got a bug killer stabbing beak but the muscles to break seeds. Gimme 10 bags of angry Cardinals any day over one of these pricks. Haha
Iāve had to save some Chickadees and Titmice multiple times before too. Both are equally dickheads, but the Chickadees are a bit worse, and definitely peck you more. The Titmouse I saved made this super high-pitched squeaking/screaming, like āEEEEEE EEEEE EEEEEā that hurt my ears tooā¦
The suet cakes and nuggets from the store is primarily beef tallow that binds it, so I guess you can say chickadees will eat a cow too. And they do love those suet nuggets!
Super interesting! It reminds me of the time I saw one of my backyard chickens hork down a mouse. Iād never believe it if I hadnāt seen it with my own eyes.
A lot of animals that we think of as herbivores are actually opportunistic omnivores. I have seen videos of deer and horses eating birds. And just about all mammals will eat the placenta. Nature abhors wasted protein.
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u/cmonster556 1d ago
Chickadees will often feed on carcasses. Fat is tough to find in winter, and protein is protein. In Minnesota, people often put out deer carcasses after hunting season to feed the birds.