On Wednesday, November 28, 2012 11:32:38 AM UTC-5, Tyler Bell wrote:
> We have a large persimmon tree next to our lab building here in Edgewater. Perhaps the same Yellow-bellied Sapsucker likes to hang around the tree in the winter. Today, I noticed the sapsucker up in the very top of the tree eating a persimmon. I've always seen them tapping wells in trees then attending them later but never seen this particular behavior before. Has anyone seen this?
>
> Birds of North America online has this about their diet but nothing specific about fruit species consumed:
>
> Major Food Items
> Sap (from variety of perennial plant species), insects, also bast (inner bark [cork cambium, phloem] and cambium layers), fruit, and seeds (Beal 1911).
>
>
>
> Quantitative Analysis
> Based on analysis of 313 stomach contents (including some Red-naped Sapsuckers; Beal 1911), 50.7% plant matter and 49.3% animal matter; of plant material, 28.1% of total food matter fruit (71.3% of diet in Nov), 16.5% cambium, and 6.1% miscellaneous plant parts; of animal matter, 34.3% of total food matter ants (Formicidae; 68% for May�Aug), 6.0% beetles (Coleoptera), 5.4% spiders (Araneida) and miscellaneous insects (mayflies [Ephemeroptera]; stoneflies [Plecoptera]; grasshoppers, crickets and tree hoppers [Orthoptera]; caterpillars and moths [Lepidoptera]; and
> flies [Diptera]), 2.6% wasps (Hymenoptera), and <1% true bugs (Hemiptera). Diet appears to shift according to time of year (see Food selection and storage, below). Cambium ingestion peaked in Apr, representing 48% of diet at that time, but analyses conservative since much fluid passes almost immediately out of stomach prior to stomach-content analysis (Beal 1911). Sap probably makes up 20% of diet annually (Short 1982), but at times may be 100% of diet (L. S. Eberhardt pers. comm.).
>
>
> Tyler Bell
> <jtyle......>
> California, Maryland
I also observed sapsuckers feed on berries this weekend (http://www.flickr.com/photos/frodejacobsen/8225585494/in/photostream). I have also observed flycatching behavior in all sapsucker species during the breeding season. I guess birds are just much more versatile that we give them credit for.
Frode Jacobsen
Windsor Mill, MD 21244
--
|