Eliot Miller, Cornell Lab of Ornithology post-doctoral associate, used data from Project FeederWatch to spearhead an anlaysis of the pecking order at North American bird feeders.

Image Source Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Pecking Order

You may remember my post of the feeding frenzy these European Starlings caused at my bird feeder.

Original Video from Earlier Post

It has been my unscientific observation that the Red-bellied Woodpecker rules over the feeder at least until a feeding frenzy starts. Then even the Red-bellied Woodpecker stays clears of the European Starlings' frenzy.

Research Based on Project FeederWatch Data

Eliot Miller asked some Project FeederWatch participants to record any interactions among bird species that could define a hierarchy at the bird feeder. For example, when a Blue Jay and a Red-bellied Woodpecker are at the bird feeder which is the dominant bird. If the Blue Jay displaces the Red-bellied Woodpecker at the feeder, then the Blue Jay is the dominant bird.

From November 2016 to April 2017 FeederWatch participants recorded 7,653 observations of such interactions at the bird feeder. Miller processed the data into "ability scores" for each of the 136 bird species observed. The "ability scores" allow researchers to predict the outcome between the different bird species.

A webpage for a subset of the birds species observed, North America's top 13 feeder bird species, has been created for you to interact with and see how each species fares.

Here are two snapshots from the webpage that show how the Red-bellied Woodpecker and the Blue Jay fared in their match ups.

Image Source

Sources

When 136 Bird Species Show Up at a Feeder, Which One Wins?, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Fighting over food unites the birds of North America in a continental dominance hierarchy, Behavioral Ecology, Oxford Academic, Volume 28, Issue 6, 13 November 2017, pg. 1454-1463

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