A tree full of finches.
I am lucky. Around my town, the EU Interreg Partridge Project planted a lot of wildflower patches. The patches provide the highly endangered Grey partridge with shelter and food. But the gallinaceous birds are not the only ones who love their wildflowers.
“One very agreeable quality of those finches is that they form mixed finch flocks.”
In late fall, thousand of finches feasted on the wildflower seeds. Greenfinches, Bullfinches, Chaffinches, Hawfinches and Goldfinches roamed the area in huge numbers. They live together, they eat together, they migrate together - well at least some. Of course they sometimes quarrel for food. They especially love the last remaining sunflower seeds. So they tend to sit right on top of the sunflowers and albeit being very social in general they are not happy to have other finches on their sunflowers.
Speaking of quarrels: The occasional fighting finches were not the only ones who got a bit heated during my last visit. A Common kestrel was around hunting and a Carrion Crow was just not having it. The Crow constantly bullied the kestrel until the bird of prey finally gave in and made way. I really like Corvidae for this quality. They are incredibly clever, they are great flyers and they don’t accept birds of prey around. The kestrel finally went hunting somewhere else.
