Why Doves fight with each other, while not with other birds? (1 Viewer)

[Nature360Bird]

Morning doves on my feeder station keep fighting with each other, while not with other birds and would share tray food with them. Strange and interesting for me.....

 

[Farnboro John]

Morning doves on my feeder station keep fighting with each other, while not with other birds and would share tray food with them. Strange and interesting for me.....

Birds are all about mating and fighting. Wanting one causes the other.

When you think about it bird song has two meanings: to females, "come and get it", to males "come over here if you think you're hard enough". Sounds nice to us but it's all sex and violence really.

John

 

[JTweedie]

You do sometimes see inter-species conflict. Magpies and wood pigeons for example are often antagonistic to each other. Nuthatches will bully other species for food too. I saw a magpie and a grey squirrel facing off the other day, although it was more that the magpie was tolerating the squirrel's presence but it was clearly wary of it.

 

[Torchepot]

Aggressive behaviour in birds is a complex subject - some species and even individuals among species seem much more prone to it.
Last winter there were some fieldfares feeding in our neighbours field, seemingly quite peacefully, but when one individual discovered some windfall apples in the garden it became extremely aggressive to anything that came nearby pinning some smaller birds to the ground on occasion!
Currently we have many chaffinches feeding side by side at our table but one male will not tolerate any company and seems to waste a huge amount of energy chasing everything else away. Likewise we have one very aggressive female blackbird that bullies all the other blackbirds away - including the males.
I think the concentration of food in a small space may exaggerate the behaviour in some species.