Hello All,
On 7 November 2004 while birding with John Gatchet below McNary Dam on the
Columbia River. We watched as two tan-striped White-throated Sparrows fed on
the beautiful eye catching red-orange fruits/berries of the Climbing
Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara). These sparrows fed on 5-7 berries each,
smashing the soft red flesh and consuming the seeds with seeming impunity.
This plant and all of its parts are poison and contain compounds such as
solanine, glycoside,dulcamarine to name a few. So we marveled at how these
two small bodied birds could ingest these toxins and then fly off
unaffected? See Oregon Birds 31(3):117.
Later Mike

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Mike & MerryLynn Denny
1354 S. E. Central Ave.
College Place, WA 99324
509.529.0080 (h)

IF YOU HAVEN'T BEEN BIRDING, YOU HAVEN'T LIVED!
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