I can share an observation on that. We've been watching a YB Sapsucker nest for the last month or so. At this point, the yammering from the still hidden chicks is quite loud, and the 2 parents have been coming in about every 30-60 sec with the next load.
A few days ago, when many other birds were hitting on our wild black cherries, I saw one YBSA parent (M) arrive at the nest with a quite large ripe cherry. Just before entering, and probably gagging one of the chicks, he thought better of that plan and flew to an adjacent tree landing on an inclined branch that also happened to have something of a split in the bark. He laid the full cherry into the split then took several whacks at it with his bill to pulp it. He carefully lifted the pit out, spat it over the side, then scooped up the pulp and flew back to the nest where by the sound, it was greedily consumed. On Jun 30, 2011, at 10:01 AM, Nancy W Dickinson wrote: > Of all the birds enjoying our fruit-laden cherry tree right now, the most > surprising is a pair of YB Sapsuckers. I have seen them flying away with one > cherry held in the beak; how they actually eat it I'm not sure. This morning > the female hopped around me, scolding while holding a fat ripe cherry in her > mouth. Maybe she meant to feed it to some young? > > Nancy W. Dickinson > Director's Administrative Assistant > Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art > Cornell University > Ithaca, NY 14853 > (607) 254-4597 > > > -- > > Cayugabirds-L List Info: > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm > > ARCHIVES: > 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html > 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds > 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html > > Please submit your observations to eBird: > http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ > > -- > ______________________ Chris Pelkie Research Analyst Bioacoustics Research Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
