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Hello everyone,
I'm currently in the process of putting together
an article on finch behaviour and was wondering whether anyone has any
interesting anecdotes of things that they have seen finches doing or heard of
finches doing.
To start the ball rolling, there is a particular
piece of behaviour that Crimson Finches have been credited with. It involves
pecking holes in the green leaves of Pandanus (Pandanus spiralis). This
was documented back in the 1940's in Emu and I know of aviculturalists that have
witnessed it with their aviary birds. So far in my study of Crimson behaviour I
haven't seen it done, however, it is a common sight here to see dead Pandanus
leaves with the holes in them. Has anyone else seen Crimsons doing this? I can
only think of two reasons for why they would do it- to eat the cut-out pieces of
leaf, or to eat insects that are in the leaf. Neither of them seem quite right
to me as the Pandanus leaf doesn't look terribly appetising and it doesn't seem
to be likely to be subject to insect attack. Any ideas?
Regards,
Mick
Michael Todd
Finch Researcher,
Dept.of
Environment and Heritage,
Pormpuraaw, Qld, Australia,
4871
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