Yesterday, I was watching the nest box again when a big yellow flurry appeared at the nest hole. At first, I thought a Flicker was raiding the box (I had just found a dead, intact Flicker on the ground nearby; my only theory was it flew into a tree and broke its neck while chasing around with others; today the body was gone, probably to the Red Fox who lives here).
But the yellow flash was the wing of a very large Swallowtail butterfly clamped firmly in the jaws of the GCFL parent. Oddly, the parent did not enter the box after landing on the edge of the entry hole; I don't know if it saw me or just decided the butterfly was too big or not dead yet, so it flew up to its normal 'safety' perch and sat rearranging the bug in its mouth. Eventually, it had both wings folded to one side and antennae out the other, making an amusing sight. After all, this Swallowtail was several inches across, so it looked like a yellow-belied flycatcher wearing a huge fashionable summer yellow hat. I did not have time to outwait it so never saw it go to the nest. This morning, the parent I believe is the male, based on it being somewhat larger, usually showing somewhat erect crest, all gray face, cheek, and neck, and more vocal (wheeps from a perch on occasion when it returns with food) flew to the nest with a small beetle then emerged again. At that time, the female (smaller, never shows erected crest, has faint white sub-auricular patch and faintly white just under bill) arrived and perched nearby as well. That meant that the bird that had popped into the entry hole was one of the feathered but apparently not yet fledged young! Yay! it sat there looking goofy showing much lighter color 'grin'. So then, here's the interesting bit: one of the parents flew to the nest hole, wiggled past that young and dropped into the nest to feed another one. Interesting that the older stronger chick didn't beg or expect or just receive the fresh offering. This was repeated in short order. On the third trip, the young one turned and dropped back into the nest. Again, this is such a marked contrast with the Red-bellied Woodpecker whose older chick was extremely aggressive when new food arrived, almost always winning it by pecking viciously at the parent mouth and stepping on its nest mate (who eventually died inside the nest for one reason or another). Final observation today was a female Cowbird appeared on a nearby branch and was immediately buzzed by one of the GCFL parents. So it then hopped onto the roof of the nest box (angled aluminum flashing, so not a good footing), then to a branch on the same cherry tree where it picked haphazardly at some loose peeling bark. I am sure in my own mind it was gauging whether or not it could drop an egg or two into that well-tended box. We'll have to see what emerges over the next week or so. I expect the GCFLs will stop feeding young after their first brood is fledged, but time will tell. ______________________ 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/ --
