food fight!

I think they are baby starlings and yes a little sparrow trying to get his beak in !

thanks GM - the startlings seem to have raised a good crop this year!

Thats good Fran, the starlings used to be in huge numbers some years ago, real pests, but now they are much less, I love the little sparrows, thats the only trouble with starlings they are a bit of a bully and the little birds don't get a look in!
keep an eye on the charity's shops for a good bird book, you may get some unusual ones as the year goes on, we have gold finches here, so pretty

They don't take long to cotton on to a good thing, Fran. Yes, that a little boy sparrow in the corner - they have the black bib on their chest :)

thanks @Pam. Starlings flocked so much they wre a serious pest in the country, but then people were killing birds of prey which would have helped to control the numbers.

I've got a couple of pics of sparrow and baby starling sharing the tray, it must be when they come mob-handed that the sparrows get deterred. The prob with books is they often have rather small pics and very small text! I need an accessible one, which might be harder to find.

Thanks @Gee. I've got some pics of sparrows to go up later, I knew there was a difference between M and F, but I can't see that well, even when the photo's cropped and zoomed in. They've eaten all my latest tub of mealworms, but the local shop only had a small tub; i need to get it wholesale, I think!

They are brilliant photos Fran, nobody would guess they were zoom point and hope!

thanks, Stera - but you didn't see the ones I had to delete!!

Deleting turkeys is the thing I'm best at...

Super pictures Fran, full of movement. You have definitely got juvenile starlings with a little male house sparrow trying to get his share.

Starlings can't go on hanging feeders as they are too big Fran. So sparrows and finches get their chance. Starlings go on the ground and tables. They all get a chance on a fatball holder if it has somewhere to perch to eat near to. It is lovely to see starlings around in larger numbers and the baby sparrows too, there are loads of them this year. Yesterday I went outside and about 30 sparrows flew up from all around the garden. They were up to all sorts so not just on feeders.

Cheeky starlings round here do try to go on the feeders but they aren't very good at it.

Starlings do try feeders but can't usually fed off them thank goodness. Whoops a big squirrel has just gone up the hawthorn trunk. Yesterday there was a spectacular fight between 2 wood pigeons under the hawthorn. It went on and on and feathers started to fly. I went outside and they flew off. They are on a nest over the path in the hawthorn. They never leave the nest unattended. They are so discrete about coming and going too. Much cleverer than blackbirds. Sorry Fran I forgot to say what a brilliant group of photos you have taken of the starlings.

ks @ Waddy. I could have got a lot more pics but when yoiu take a pic with this stupid camera, it holds the pic onscreen for several seconds, so you can't take another pic till it clears. I probably missed some excellent photo-ops because of this.

Thanks @ Dorjac, I didn't know that. I'll have to put some food on the ground, or a tray on the ground, to give the adults a chance.

30 sprawwos? wow, that's a mega-flock!

maybe the wood pigoen fuss was another male trying to muscle in on the resident's terrority and female? good that they do'nt leave hte nest untended

thanks @ Stera. Maybe a bird table will be on the cards later