A song thrush has learnt to feed from our hanging feeders. Has anyone else seen this behaviour? Discovered how to upload a photo now!

Thanks for your reply, Bob. I thought it might be unusual but wanted to see what experienced birders thought. We have a pair of song thrushes in the garden and this one spent a few days looking up at the feeder watching the other birds feeding before attempting it itself. The bird flies vertically from the ground to the feeder but finds a more controlled approach horizontally from the hedge behind. Its technique is improving every day! Wonderful adaptability in action . The other thrush has so far shown no interest. However, one of our female blackbirds has been watching, so we shall see.

Hello Nelda, welcome from up in the very far north of Scotland, in Caithness. I have never see this before either. I have had the Blackbirds on the feedrers.

As the others said, the Blackbirds in my garden learnt to do it, the male gradually improving over a few weeks, from trying to hover, dive-bombing to knock bits off and finally just hanging on. The female just watched first and then joined in later, so I wouldn't be surprised if other birds follow suit. I've never seen or heard of Song Thrushes doing it before, although I suppose Blackbirds are thrushes too, so maybe it's the logical progression!

Hello Nelda and welcome to the community forum; what a timely shot showing the song thrush at your feeder, as others have said, I think it's also the first time I've heard of one coming to a feeder so well spotted and photographed. We have a Song Thrush visiting our garden on occasion but mostly it is to our pond area for bathing purposes as most thrushes and other birds love water.

A great photo.

I have observed carrion crows clinging upside down to the botton of bird pastry feeders,

I have also noticed magpies, robins and even feral pigeons hanging on to feeders while flapping rapidly with their wings to stay in position as they peck.

I have a Collared Dove feeding from a heavy glass bowl of sunflower hearts & suet pellets on shelf just outside my kitchen window, deftly perched on the rim & doesn't fly off even though it can see me observing!

Hi Mark
Yes, we have magpies, jackdaws and crows feeding from ours too. They and one Robin in particular can cling to the feeders without any wing-flapping. Like the Great spotted woodpeckers the larger birds seem to use their tails to hold on as well as their feet!

We've had blackbirds attempt similar scenarios from our feeders, but probably the best and weirdest attempts we see, are wood pigeons flying up to a feeder, flapping their wings to maintain balance while trying to feed!

See this video I uploaded a while back; Wood Pigeon stealing from the feeder!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTtiWjxL-DM

Robins in my garden have learned the trick of hanging on with wings flapping madly, but the blackbirds are strictly ground level.