Sparrow activity

Over the years I've seen a lot of sparrow behavior,   males facing off,  gang "bangs" with one female being used by a cluster of males, but I'd never before seen what I watched for about 20 minutes yesterday. There's a big tree at west 69th street, lots of branches, lots of holes, sturdy tree. It's a sparrow condo, has been for years.  I entered the park and saw what my eyes perceived as twirling seed pods  falling down. It took about four seconds before my brain kicked in, not seed pods,  sparrows locked in mortal combat, or so it seemed. There's no way to get close, because this space is surrounded by a fence. The sparrows kept tumbling, different sparrows, tumbling from one nest branch. Because of the ferocious activity and distance it was hard to determine who was fighting. The first fighters appeared to be both male.

  

                                        Each image is a different pair of fighting sparrows.

With total disregard and squirrel came running into the scene.

The sparrows split apart and I could see that they were both males. I've seen two males fight till one drew blood.

Above, two females squabbling

On the ground two females fighting, one male watching

Male and female, probably sexual

Two females fighting. They just kept coming, raining battles.

Still two females brawling

Brawling females while male watches

This was the nest. I have no idea who won. The fighting stopped after about 20 minutes. I walked on stunned at having seen this battle field. There was nothing patient or gentle about this.