I hadn’t seen either one of the towhees (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) in a couple of weeks, so needless to say, I was really pleased to see the female show up at the feeding station on Monday. As usual, she was kind of shy, but once she started eating, she seemed really hungry. She hadn’t been eating for very long before Poppa cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) showed up, and he wasn’t happy. During breeding season he becomes pretty darned territorial and will run off any other cardinal that tries to eat at the station. Usually he’s fine with most other birds, but he definitely didn’t like the towhee being there. At first he perched on a stick that put him slightly above her and tried (unsuccessfully) to stare her down. When that didn’t work, the stare became a glare. She was still oblivious, so eventually he attacked her. There was a great ruffling of feathers and some squawking, but even though the towhee is noticeably larger, he successfully ran her off. Then he sat on the ground looking pleased with himself for a few seconds before starting to eat. It’s always interesting watching the birds interact together at the feeding station.