This may be of interest to the discussion. I cannot find it now, but there was one other common berry (Serviceberry? I think not) connected with waxwing suicides against glass. We have had regular deaths on (stupid) reflecting glass (-my hawk shapes do help) when the birds ate off one tree that I believe as service berry. Now the tree has been sacrificed to an underground water system, problem solved.
Anne Vet Med Int. 2010; 2010: 818159. Published online Dec 9, 2010. doi: 10.4061/2010/818159 PMCID: PMC3005831 Feeding Behavior-Related Toxicity due to Nandina domestica in Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) Moges Woldemeskel* and Eloise L. Styer Author information ► Article notes ► Copyright and License information ► Go to: Abstract Dozens of Cedar Waxwings were found dead in Thomas County, Georgia, USA, in April 2009. Five of these were examined grossly and microscopically. Grossly, all the examined birds had pulmonary, mediastinal, and tracheal hemorrhages. Microscopically, several tissues and organs were diffusely congested and hemorrhagic. Congestion and hemorrhage were marked in the lungs. Intact and partly digested berries of Nandina domestica Thunb. were the only ingesta found in the gastrointestinal tract of these birds. Due to their voracious feeding behavior, the birds had eaten toxic doses of N. domestica berries. N. domestica contains cyanide and is one of the few berries readily available at this time of the year in the region. The gross and microscopic findings are consistent with lesions associated with cyanide toxicity. This paper for the first time documents toxicity associated with N. domestica in Cedar Waxwings. On Mar 6, 2014, at 3:57 PM, John Confer wrote: > Clearly, the FAA is not acting in a responsible manner. > > The IC campus has numerous ornamental cherry trees, some very close to the > center of campus and in locations with heavy human traffic. Cedar Waxwing > flocks, occasionally as large as several hundred, eat the berries on these > trees in late fall and on spring return in early spring. If you squeeze the > berries, they sure do smell like an alcoholic fruit drink. Without any > scientific evidence, I've always assumed that it was fermented. > > Supporting the fermentation possibility is that > 1. The birds eating the fermented berries can be absurdly tame, allowing > nearly a hundred students to walk by with 2 to 15 m as class changes. > 2. A great many of the birds kill themselves against the nearby plate glass > windows, far more than I would expect if they weren't flying while under the > influence. I suppose I have seen at least 20 dead below windows. > 3. Even more convincing, I have seen an additional 10-20 lying dead beneath > the trees. I never thought of alcohol poisoning, which now seems possible. In > several instances the birds had berries half swallowed in their throat or in > the gap of their mouth. I thought they got drunk and then suffocated > themselves. > > Keven mentioned the major selective pressure against eating fermented berries > and drunken behavior. Similarly, there have been fatal consequences among > students on our campuses due to drinking in the last several years, yet > students do continue to get smashed (a quite appropriate word). I guess that > for waxwings, the choice at some time and place may be starvation or > drunkenness. > > John > > > On 3/6/2014 12:56 PM, Weinberg, Kathy C. wrote: >> Besides, the FAA will not allow the birds to fly with elevated blood alcohol >> levels. >> >> >> >> Kathy C. Weinberg >> >> Jenner & Block LLP >> 1099 New York Avenue, N.W. >> Suite 900, Washington, DC 20001-4412 | jenner.com >> (202) 639-6868 | TEL >> (214) 673-1300 | MOBILE >> (202) 661-4930 | FAX >> kweinb...@jenner.com >> Download V-Card | View Biography >> >> <Mail Attachment.jpeg> >> >> CONFIDENTIALITY WARNING: This email may contain privileged or confidential >> information and is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Any >> unauthorized use or disclosure of this communication is prohibited. If you >> believe that you have received this email in error, please notify the sender >> immediately and delete it from your system. >> From: bounce-112957669-62235...@list.cornell.edu >> [mailto:bounce-112957669-62235...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Dave Nutter >> Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2014 12:20 PM >> To: CAYUGABIRDS-L >> Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Inebriation in birds >> >> >> I am just speculating, but my thoughts are: >> >> * The drying process would preserve the fruit because the yeasts might be >> unable to function without water (I surmise), just as the bacteria cannot >> function with low water and high sugar concentrations (my understanding of >> why drying preserves fruit). >> * Any alcohol in the fruit would be as apt to evaporate as the water, or >> maybe more so, ethanol boiling at a lower temperature than water. >> * The birds would need water to reconstitute and digest the concentrated >> fruit. When I eat very dry food, my stomach hurts unless I also drink water, >> I think because the dried food draws too much water from my stomach. Water >> is needed for digestion generally to break up many larger molecules, >> although oxidation later on also creates water which I assume can be used >> for this. Birds don't carry around extra water. I often see waxwings >> drinking, and I think that's why. >> * I'm skeptical that birds who rely on old fruit have issues with >> inebriation. Birds are so finely tuned for flying that the drunks wouldn't >> survive, either hitting something or getting eaten. The >> selection pressure would be enormous. I think either there isn't much >> alcohol out there, or they know how to avoid it. >> * Cedar Waxwings are a bit quirky and different from other birds, which >> might be misinterpreted as tipsy. >> * A big difference between the dried fruit we eat, such as raisins, and the >> fruit birds eat is that we dry ours quickly and then keep it dry, stored out >> of the weather, whereas fruit on trees is exposed to precipitation, and wild >> fluctuations in temperature and humidity. It's a really good question what >> actually goes on inside a fruit hanging on a tree for several months. I bet >> it's very different depending on the size of the fruit (full-sized apples v >> crabapples v buckthorn & nannyberry). The skin of the fruit must play a huge >> role, too, in shedding and repelling water, and keeping out microorganisms. >> >> --Dave Nutter >> >> On Mar 06, 2014, at 11:40 AM, "W. Larry Hymes" <w...@cornell.edu> wrote: >> >> I recently wrote about cedar waxwings consuming snow, while at the time >> they were eating the dried fruit of Korean Ash. I raised the question >> whether they were perhaps doing this to dilute the alcohol in the >> fruit. Kevin expressed the opinion that there would be no juice, >> fermented or otherwise, in the fruit. He then asked, if I had ever >> gotten drunk eating raisins. The answer to that is no, particularly >> since raisins are _not_ made from overripe fruit. As to his statement >> about no juice being in dried fruit, there is some water content in >> raisins (up to 15%), although, of course, that is controlled in the >> drying process. If there were no moisture at all in raisins, it would >> be like eating hardtack! I would hazard to guess that there is some >> residual water, albeit very little, in naturally dried fruit. >> >> As I understand, alcohol is produced as fruit becomes over ripe. As >> moisture leaves the fruit, the alcohol will become more concentrated, >> with the highest concentration occurring during the winter months. The >> alcohol may help to preserve the fruit. I recall reading a post to >> Cayuga Birds long ago about someone observing unusual behavior in robins >> that had become tipsy from eating overripe fruit. Since cedar waxwings >> feed exclusively(?) on fruit, I could imagine that they could be more >> susceptible to becoming inebriated, if they were to consume fruit that >> has alcohol concentrated in it. This can be dangerous for the birds, >> since it makes them more susceptible to predation, and if they were to >> consume enough of it, they could die. All this made me wonder whether >> waxwings could have developed an adaptation for consuming water when >> eating overripe fruit in order to dilute their "drink". Kevin may well >> be right that the birds coincidentally were very thirsty at the same >> time they were consuming the fruit. By the way, I have no idea what >> the alcohol content might be in dried, overripe fruit of Korean Ash. I >> have not bothered to do a taste test! Does anyone know someone who >> might be willing to run an analysis? >> >> Larry >> >> -- > > -- > Cayugabirds-L List Info: > Welcome and Basics > Rules and Information > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > Archives: > The Mail Archive > Surfbirds > BirdingOnThe.Net > Please submit your observations to eBird! > -- > <confer.vcf> -- 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/ --
