Hello Group,


I had a nice day viewing & capturing video of the CC Longspur & Orchard Oriole at Hoquiam last week. Thanks given to a friend for fast finds.


I watched as the Longspur dismantled a fat, alive and Water-logged moth: hold by wing fling 10 inches, repeat, repeat, peck until no leg movements, eat. Neat bird.


I "filmed" the Oriole consuming: grasshopper or equivalent, seeds, not visible leaf gleanings and most interestingly H. Blackberry seeds.
The OO would repeatedly extract single blackberry fruit pearls, intact (I did not think this was possible), gently move each up and down it's beak with it's tongue (It reminded me of a cross between an elegant version of a person rolling a coin across the top of their outstretched fingers and a finch gently extracting the contents of a small seed), then fling the pearl aside with a quick flick of the head. Very impressive. It appeared that the bird was carefully and with great tactile and very fine motor skills, extracting the seed and disposing of the fleshy fruit.


Has anyone seen this or other birds do this with berries? Why didn't the Oriole simply eat the whole pearl? Trying to keep alcohol ingestion down? Low carb diet? Doesn't have a "sweet beak"?


I went to the Cornell site and found the following quote: " Selects only ripe fruit, which passes through digestive tract quickly. Stomach samples contain less fruit than is observed being eaten (WCS). Selects adult, small-sized grasshoppers; only small nymphs of larger species found in stomach flushings (WCS)."


Best regards,
Dan Reiff
Mercer Island