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Re: R-e Vireo gathers honeysuckle bark



It used the tongue.

-- Helmut C Mueller

409 Moonridge Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Phone: 919-942-4937

Permanent email address: hmueller@email.unc.edu


> From: Ginger Travis <gtravis@email.unc.edu>
> Organization: UNC-CH
> Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 11:05:09 -0400
> To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
> Subject: R-e Vireo gathers honeysuckle bark
> 
> This morning I looked out the window to see something new: a Red-eyed
> Vireo stripping outer bark from a native coral honeysuckle vine. As the
> bird pulled off each short section of bark, he or she then added the new
> bark strip to a growing collection held crosswise in the beak. This was
> a pretty neat trick, using the beak to strip bark while also holding a
> bundle. Not sure how the bird did that! The crosswise bark strips looked
> a lot like a big handlebar mustache. After getting a good beakful of
> nesting material, the vireo flew away and didn't return while I was
> watching.
> 
> The shreddy outer bark of vines and some trees must be a very valuable
> resource. I have seen a female cardinal stripping bark from what I
> remember as either Japanese honeysuckle or trumpet creeper, and I think
> I remember that a Brown-headed Nuthatch who built in a bluebird box used
> bark strips that might have been red cedar (long time ago -- so not
> sure).
> 
> Ginger Travis
> Chapel Hill, N.C.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ginger Travis
> Chapel Hill, N.C.