Each year at about this time, a contest ensues. Norther Flickers, who build the nesting cavities and have been on site for some time, are challenged for ownership by freshly arrived Tree Swallows. It usually works out that flickers get to use some cavities and swallows others.
A female Norther Flicker examines a nesting cavity. The male was hanging around doing the same thing.
Tree Swallows (male on left, female on right) arrived on the last day of March to look for nesting sites. Inevitably they try to take over ones that flickers have built for themselves, and the swallows sometimes succeed. On this occasion, they were harassing the flickers in a failed attempt to drive them off.
“Combat is a real nuisance. Just because flickers build the cavities doesn’t mean they should own them all.”
Thanks Alistair, It always surprises me that flickers can be intimidated into surrendering the cavities they’ve built or claimed, by seemingly smaller birds. In my yard it’s the starlings that inevitably succeed in driving the flickers away! That’s when I interfere with nature and cover the hole, don’t want to be aiding the starlings !!
Bobbie, apart from the fact that all woodpeckers seem to be a bit skittish, it is the case that small birds are often seen driving off a larger bird by mobbing it. It is not just that they attach in numbers, but that their small size makes them more manoeuvrable than the bigger birds. So, the flicker probably isn’t capable of countering the swallows badgering.
Glad to read that te wee ones often suceed . Thanks for pictures and info.