On 12/15/2015 2:16 PM, jmcquown wrote:
>>
> Squirrels eat eggs, too. They'll also eat baby birds if they can manage
> to invade a nest not protected by a mother bird.
>
> Then again, birds also eat eggs. I've seen them do it. There was a
> funny moment many years ago when I was sitting on my apartment balcony
> after work. A woman came down the walkway carrying two bags of
> groceries. She dropped a carton of eggs. I guess not all of them broke
> because she picked up what was left and walked on to her apartment. Not
> a minute later, a bunch of house finches decended from the pine trees
> nearby. They ate the broken chicken eggs.
>
House sparrows are notorious for destruction of nests. Just watch bigger
birds like blue jays in the spring when there are sparrows around.
Sparrows have been a very destructive non-native species. Even a total
bird lover I know wouldn't bat an eye at killing a sparrow.
> Many birds will invade a nest and eat the hatchlings. Hence, the cowbird.
>
> Nature is cruel. Nature knows we need all sorts of foodstuffs to
> survive. That includes greens, seeds and grains. But no, we don't all
> have to be vegetarians. :)
Many birds will eat other birds or kill and/or eat the young or eggs of
other birds. Very right, nature is cruel. We watched a hawk swoop down
and grab a cardinal one day from my parents kitchen window. The hawk
wasn't very steady after that catch and lost control, let go of the
cardinal where it hit the big kitchen picture window. But the cardinal
got up, and flew off.