[Vision2020] Maybe not rare at all, but

[Ron Force]

Nectar, too:

Food

[image: Food Insects]Bullock's Orioles eat insects and other arthropods, as
well as fruit and nectar. They glean insects from leaves, branches and
trunks; they also pluck insects from spiderwebs or from the air, and take
ripe fruit from bushes and trees. Bullock's Orioles use a method called
"gaping" to extract juice from fruit, and also sometimes from tough-skinned
caterpillars. Thrusting their closed bills through the skin and into the
flesh of the fruit or animal, they then pry their bills open inside and lap
up the pooling juices with their brushy tongues. Sometimes these orioles
skin caterpillar prey by hitting it repeatedly on a branch. Before eating
honeybees, they extract and drop the stinger. Common prey insects include
caterpillars, grasshoppers, and crickets. The birds also take beetles,
ants, bugs, scale insects, stinkbugs, leafhoppers, treehoppers, and small
spiders. Rarely, they eat small lizards. They take nectar from agaves,
introduced eucalyptus, and other flowers. Commonly consumed fruits include
blackberries, raspberries, cherries, and figs. Nestlings are fed crickets,
stick insects, camel crickets, cicadas, moth and butterfly pupae, earwigs,
ants, and crane flies.
Behavior

[image: Behavior Foliage Gleaner]Bullock's Orioles glean and probe in trees
for insects and nectar, often hanging upside down for extended periods.
They make short hops from branch to branch, sometimes flying to the ground
to nab insects. Their flight is strong and direct....


https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Bullocks_Oriole/lifehistory


Ron Force
Moscow Idaho USA


On Tue, May 17, 2022 at 7:03 PM Don Coombs <wildmushroomer at gmail.com> wrote:

> As a less than professional birder, I don't know whether I have something
> rare in my backyard or not. But I have a Bullocks Oriole or Northern
> Oriole, which is new for me. He has spent an intense day in my pie cherry
> tree, which is in full bloom, and I've wondered what he's doing.
>
> My favorite field guide (Sibley) says this species feeds on caterpillars
> and -- wait for this -- pollen! So here we have a robin-sized bird (and a
> bright-colored one) feeding like a hummingbird (although not flying in
> place). Any comments from Audubon types on Vision 2020?
>
> Don Coombs
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20220517/ea6847ad/attachment.html>