[cobirds] Hungry birds like seedlings!

Hello bird people, 

Per Dave Leatherman's prompt, I want to share a bird food observation from this morning.  I noted a pair of Cassin's Sparrows, a few House Finches, and a single House Sparrow foraging in the bare ground of my yard. I watched with binoculars to see them snipping off and consuming the first true leaves and cotyledons of some common weeds that have emerged in the past week, lambsquarters and prostrate knotweed. As a bander of sparrows in Feb and March in northern Mexico, I often captured birds with green residue on their beaks that I assume came from eating the abundant and succulent Russian Thistle (tumbleweed) seedlings. If you are a gardener you've probably lost seedling peas to House Sparrows or discovered bird beak shaped triangles missing from young leaves. These "microgreens" are a fine source of carbohydrates, minerals, and possibly water. Dave or others, have you made similar observations or is there literature documenting seedlings as a food source for birds? I am certain that birds were on top of the microgreen fad long before humans jumped on this health food bandwagon. Also, I do appreciate the birdy help with weeding although I doubt they will make a dent in this yard!

Erin Strasser

Laporte, Colorado

P.S. Evening Grosbeaks are still consistently in my neighborhood. 

On Apr 17, 2023, at 8:13 AM, DAVID A LEATHERMAN <daleatherman@msn.com> wrote:



Congrats to all the predictors, finders and successful refinders of the great birds causing us spring excitement after what has seemed like a very long winter.  As always I encourage folks to document these situations beyond what and where.  OK, so I'm into behaviors, particularly related to bird diets.  Figuring out, documenting, showing in a photo what a bird is eating is difficult.  But I think things like showing what kind of plants these birds are in shouldn't be that hard to do.  Ebird, for reasons nobody will explain, truncates its utility by not allowing photos of plants or food that don't have a bird in the frame.  But there's no rule against sharing such photos on COBIRDS and other platforms.  My experience is that birders and now their apps, are getting very good at identifying birds and bird sounds but are often unsure about tree and other plant IDs, insect IDs, etc.  But our optics in the form of phones and stand-alone cameras offer a plethora of options for documenting the kinds of things I constantly find myself wanting when checking alerts and eBird checklists.  After the bird hops on, take a decent photo of the plant(s) it seemed most interested in.  The identity of the plant alone probably informs likely reasons for the bird's presence in it.  Further, there are apps that identify plants pretty darn well.  Plug in a pic of the plant and add the app info to reports.  GPS coordinates and comments like "got it" and "continuing" are great information for seekers of these birds, as far as they go.  For those of us who choose not to, or can't, pursue these great birds, our "Walter Mitty" experience would be richer with more information about what these birds are doing.  And we might add new paragraphs to their life histories.  For example, we have the opportunity to find out what Lucy's Warblers do when they're not in the desert.  Have we ever had more than one on the East Slope at the same time?  Brian's meteorological prediction featuring southwestern U.S. possibilities came true?  

And then there's that Common Black-Hawk stealing a fish, not a crayfish, from a heron in Salida.

Just some thoughts,

Dave Leatherman

Fort Collins

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