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Edwin
and Other interested persons re Black Kites taking insects
It is
an annual feature on our campus here 14 mile out of Port Moresby to observe
black kites taking moth cocoons from the terminal portions of Poinciana
branches, then while floating in the air, and using their feet and bill they
open the cocoon extract the chrysalis and swallow it.
These
were the first birds I observed doing this, but as I set some outdoor labs for
my Ecology students around this phenomenon we collected a list of about seven
bird species all doing the same - though the styles differed. Torresian Crows
started two years ago by just walking under the trees and picking up what the
kites dropped but this year they got into the trees with such aggression that
they did more damage to the trees than the caterpillars did.
Enjoy
your next meal
Mike
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Dr Mike Tarburton
Dean: School of Science &
Technology
Pacific Adventist University
PMB Boroko
Papua New
Guinea
A friend of mine who lives in the Castlereagh
area (western Sydney) just phoned me not long ago to say that he was watching
about 4 species of raptors (unfortunately he could not positively identify
them, though one sounded like a Black Kite) were constantly disturbing and
than swooping down on the Cicadas in the Eucalypts.
Has anybody observed anything like this
before?
Edwin
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