We've been having one of those ladybug invasions at work the last couple of days; about 40 of them on my floor alone had penetrated the defenses of our almost-hermetically-sealed office building, while thousands more were moving up and down the walls of all four floors. A couple of large spiders were enjoying the windfall, but I noticed an utter lack of birds on the scene. Granted, the setting in question would not be a terribly productive feeding area generally speaking, but the scale of this event seems to me to be more than sufficient to attract the attention of passing birds.

Question: what bird species are particularly fond of ladybugs? Something that occurred to me was that their orange-and-black color scheme might indicate that they are toxic, or at least pretending to be, like various other organisms with similar coloration. Can anyone confirm or deny this? The spiders can't even make a dent in all that protein.

I got the impression that they were all one species, but was struck by the wide variation in color and spotting. Is there anything to be divined from individual appearance?

Also, can anyone tell me what this event is about? Are they mating, trying to lay eggs, or electing a new president? Seems to me I've read about this, but I don't recall. Their behavior was inscrutable...

Jim McCoy
jfmccoy at earthlink.net
Redmond, WA