Chippyrats and Doves

Chippyrats (aka chipmunks or ground squirrels) can scare away mourning doves from a bird feeder.

The chippyrat I saw was on the feeder before the dove arrived. The dove perched on an eave of the neighbor's house. It flew in towards the open box feeder, saw the chippyrat, and decided to flutter to the ground instead. Wimp.

I'm not sure if the chippyrat made an aggressive move towards the bird. I would have thought that the dove, being about twice the chippyrat's size would have at least challenged the little critter for a space on the feeder.