English Sparrow Feeding Young Eastern Kingbirds
English Sparrow Feeding Young Eastern Kingbirds.-About 430 on the afternoon of June 16, 1951, I observed a female English Sparrow (Passer domesficus) feeding three young Eastern Kingbirds (Tymnnus tymnnuc). The young kingbirds were able to fly although only awkwardly. They were perched on the telephone lines at a busy intersection about three miles from downtown Shreveport, Louisiana.
When first observed, the sparrow was feeding one of the young birds. I watched the birds for approximately forty-five minutes from a distance of twenty to forty feet. When the spatrow anpeared with food: the kingbirds converged on it begging lustily, wings fluttering. The hungry kingbirds overwhelmed the sparrow, pushing her off tbe wire when she brought food. The sparrow flew off into the grass and weeds along the roadside and on vacant lots near by. At intervals of five to ten minutes she returned with food. Because the kingbirds shifted positions, I was not able to determine whether the sparrow was feeding all three kingbirds or only one of them. In the course of the observation* the sparrow brought food five or six times,
On the morning of June 18 the kingbirds were again seen on the wires at the same intersection. On June 21 one young kingbird appeared in the yard of my sister, about one hundred yards from where I had seen the three young birds. A female sparrow was feeding this kingbird. My sister put out bread and the kingbird came with the flock of sparrows and was fed by one iemale sparrow. Whether the kingbird was fed by more than one sparrow was not determined for certain.
Apparently the same young bird was observed on June 22 and 23 being fed by the sparrow. On the 25th the kingbird was still being fed, and on the 26th and 27th it was beginning to catch insects but would light with the sparrows and feed on the bread. The kingbird was not seen after the 27th, and the other two young birds were not seen again. Adult kingbirds were not seen anywhere in the vicinity at any time.-G. DALE HAMILTON, Shreveport, Louisiana, April 23, 1952.
