Re: CARDINAL CATCHES HUMMER

[Chris Hill <chill@kingfish.coastal.edu>]

I recall an incident related on another listserv where an Evening
Grosbeak, feeding on seed on the ground at a winter bird feeder, calmly
walked over to a feeding Purple Finch, grabbed it and killed it, and then
ate a good portion of its breast meat, making a bloody spectacle of
itself. There were other similar incidents mentioned in the same thread,
involving other species (I forget which). What can we conclude from this?  
Protein can be scarce, individual birds can be opportunists, (and both
Cardinals and Grosbeaks certainly have a heck of a weapon in their beaks),
and if you put enough birders in the field and connect them by e-mail, you
can learn about all kinds of behaviors we'd miss on our own, even in a
lifetime of birding.

Chris Hill 
Conway, SC