"Back off, luh!"

There are two, sometimes three, flickers that have pretty well exclusive access to our suet. They easily scare off the smaller birds like juncos and chickadees when they are in the flickers' way.

But today, after sixty-odd cm of snow, a phalanx of starlings, each nearly as big as a flicker, were trying to get at the suet. This flicker was having nothing to do with their usurpation.

He made himself look big, with a dangerous bill and lunged at them. The starlings didn't reciprocate much, but they weren't put off by him either. They'd just shuffle in closer from the sides and above, and drive him into another frenzy.

Finally, there were just too many starlings for him, and he left the scene.