Posting this for Karen:
Martin, Questions are great. From my perspective, asking first about
which other species are present and what they are doing would lead to
a broader view of the community at large and lead to more meaningful
specific hypotheses about the interaction you initially observed. For
example, in your scenario you may notice that other species of birds
are more plentiful, that the caterpillar species you observed is
relatively uncommon or more commonly found on another plant species.
If so, "jumping to a hypothesis", would have led you astray. ;)
Karen Kester
Department of Biology
Virginia Commonwealth University
