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Re: How does a titmouse eat a blueberry?



Ginger,

Vireos are a strange bird in that, during the breeding season, they feed
almost exclucively on insects for protien and to build upa fat layer for
migration.  They also use them to feed thier young because it is a way of
getting them bigger faster.  However in their wintering grounds fruits and
berries are more readily availible so they go for them instead.  I guess
living in North Carolina makes them think that they are in thier wintering
grounds so they are getting a head start.

Bye for now

Tony Bezanson
Lake Echo, NS
Canada

-----Original Message-----
From: Travis, Ginger <Ginger@athena.dev.unc.edu>
To: 'carolinabirds@duke.edu' <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
Date: August 5, 1999 11:51 AM
Subject: How does a titmouse eat a blueberry?


>Same way it eats a sunflower seed:  by holding it clasped between both feet
>and stabbing it repeatedly with its beak. I guess I shouldn't be surprised,
>but I was, a little, as I watched a titmouse chow down on a blueberry this
>morning -- part of a little frenzied feeding group in my blueberry bushes:
>a pair of cardinals, a pair of red bellied woodpeckers (who took each berry
>back to a tree-trunk perch before eating it), a couple of chickadees and
>maybe a red-eyed vireo. (I have learned that vireos can be great fruit
>eaters. Last year they stripped the berries off one native viburnum in my
>yard in two days.) The blueberries are now very, very ripe and full of
>yellow jackets too.
>Ginger_Travis@unc.edu
>Chapel Hill, NC
>