We have two great bird items today. The first comes from reader, biologist, and naturalist Lou Jost, who lives and works in Ecuador. I’ll let him tell you the story, but it involves a decade of planning to get one photograph, as well as a cool seed-dispersal strategy of a parasitic plant:
This picture of a Golden-rumped Euphonia (Euphonia cyanocephala) took ten years of planning. These birds are quite thinly distributed and eat mostly mistletoe berries. My only hope of photographing them was to have mistletoes growing next to my kitchen window. So ten years ago when I started building my house, near my kitchen window I planted a tree that I knew was a good host for mistletoe. Five years ago the tree seemed big enough to host mistletoes, so I planted some on the branches, especially on the lower branches that would be in good view from my window. Finally this year the mistletoes made fruits, and the euphonias came, and I got my picture! This is a male; the female is mostly green.
Their poop is amazing–long sticky dangling thread-like chains of mistletoe seeds. The birds have to wipe their butts on the branches to free the chains, thus planting the seeds on the hosts’ branches. The chains blow in the wind so more seeds get stuck on other branches. I put additional poop pictures here.
JAC: This seems likely to be an adaptation for the mistletoe to spread its seeds. Those mistletoe individuals who had the chemical composition in their fruits to make bird poop sticky were those who left more of their genes. Evolution is cleverer than you are! (For even more cleverness, read below the photo.)
More by Lou on the poop from the Fundacion EcoMinga website, with other fascinating information:
After it left the mistletoe, it perched on a branch and wiggled its butt like an American football player doing a victory dance in the end zone after scoring a touchdown. I didn’t realize it at the moment, but it was actually wiping its butt on the branch to remove the stringy poop it had just made. The poop is a remarkably long (12-15 cm) transparent sticky thread, with big green mistletoe seeds embedded in it at regular intervals. The dangling sticky seeds get stuck on branches, and the bird’s wiggling butt-wipes also plant some of the seeds directly on the branches of the host. The remarkable structure of the poop is especially surprising considering that each mistletoe berry contains only one seed. The glue in the berries (viscin) joins the seeds together into these long chains inside the bird’s intestines!
*******
And, since we’re keeping track of Stephen Barnard’s bald eagles in Idaho (parents Luci and Desi, with an unknown number of chicks), here’s a video and some photos of eagle childcare:
First, Desi brings a half-eaten fish home (look hard; it happens at 14 seconds). Luci appears to get all excited when she sees Desi on the way:
I couldn’t see the fish so well, but Stephen sent me a screenshot and a note: “You can clearly see the half-eaten fish in the talons.” He added this:
That was a pretty big fish, by the way. I’d guess over 20″. I can understand why he’d want to eat part of it rather than carry it to the nest. They fish within a radius of several miles.
And another photo of this magnificent bird:
Reliable evening pose. I had to shoot portrait mode to fit him into the frame.
I would think the picture of that Euphonia might be worth quite a lot. I thought mistletoe was poison, maybe the leaves.
Really great Eagle picture.
Almost certain fresh fish is the Eagle’s favorite dish. Second might be fresh frozen.
Apparently mistletoe might have some medicinal qualities, based on strictly research, but it’s not approved by the FDA:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/mistletoe/patient/page1
I wonder if this is the same species of mistletoe that grows on Oak trees in America. The berries look a little different. But I do know the American mistletoe variety is toxic. Unless your standing underneath it with someone purty by your side. 🙂
No, not the same species, but similar.
Great photos and story, Lou.
Same to you! Must be nice to have a nest like that so close by.
Stephen, is the nest in a dead tree? I don’t see any leaf buds. (You’ve probably discussed this before, but my memory’s like a steel sieve these days.)
The nest is in a live tree, but not a substantial one. It was hijacked from a heron and expanded. This nest looks precarious to me. We have ferocious wind storms, one of which blew down their previous nest.
I think the Golden-rumped Euphonia is the greatest Readers’ Wildlife Photos post so far: the first photograph is spectacular and worth the decade-long wait; the backstory is really very charming; the poop story is fascinating; and PCC’s added evolution tidbit is great, too! So so good. Kudos.
And any day that has Lucy and Desi in it is a good day.
What a euphorious start to the weekend!
Thanks very much for the kind words!!
You’re welcome – and thank you for brightening my day with your gorgeous birds and their stringy poop! I have three daughters aged 5-1/2, 7 and 8 who are going to love this post!
Ditto on the kids. Just last night my son was telling me how when he grows up he is going to get PhDs in EE, ME and biology. I said, great combination, please hurry so you can support me.
My daughter is, if anything, more bio enthused than her brother. For the past week a pelican skull and neck has been lying on our back deck for “cleaning.” Also this week they have become interested in owl pellets. They find them in a grove near us, seperate out all the bones and then try to reconstruct and identify the nommed critters.
My first-grader brought home the contents of an owl pellet this weekend! She told me what each of the bones was. So fun.
WOW Lou. Great story, beautiful bird and a lovely photo. My hat is off to you (actually I pretty much never wear hats) for executing such a long term plan so well. The poop is fascinating too.
Stephen, that portrait is mesmerizing. Staring right at you with such calm dignity. Do they keep a good eye on you whenever you are near?
Thanks Darelle. I was glad the birds cooperated with my plan. Most of the time they don’t…
The story reminded me of Harry Joy’s love letter in Bliss. Such patience!
I must say I find “Golden-rumped Euphonia” itself to be a euphonic and evocative use of nomenclature.
That is some amazing shit!
lol
Sub
Beautiful photos all. One wonders how exactly the custom of kissing under bird poop got started?
Maybe on the lightning-never-strikes-twice principle.
A beautiful picture of the Euphonia and a fascinating illustration of its ecological relationship with its preferred food plant. Amazing!
What a brilliant example of the importance of planning ahead!
This is wonderful, Lou and Stephen!
That’s some great planning, Lou(Job?); it also speaks well of your patience. It gives me hope, wrt to cultivating milkweed for the Monarch butterflies. I’ve got two or three big plants on the go, and a couple of seedlings that might have survived the winter and the rambling weedy nature of the Virginia Creeper.
Wonderful stuff, thanks both of you.
Exceptionally regal photo of the eagle Stephen.
Hi Jerry,
I can’t find a way to email you on your website, so resorting to try and contact you through a comment, which isn’t strictly relevant to the related article (sorry!)
I’ve been subscribing to your website for nearly a year now, really enjoy the mix of topics and subject-matter you address, tons of different interesting stuff.
But had a thought – maybe some animal/evolution jokes would add a further dimension to the eclecticness (a word?), a bit of ‘end of week frivolity’?
This kind of thing:
Young polar bear goes up to her parents and asks “Do we have any Grizzly bear in our ancestry?” “No” say the parents, puzzled. “Do we have any Black bear in our ancestry?” “No”. “What about Panda bear?” “No, none of those. Why do you ask?”
“Because I’m freezing!”
Well, it’s a start! I’m sure other readers can raise the bar higher, gauntlet thrown.
Wadya think?
regards, Chris.
You’ll have to excuse the uselessness and inanity of this comment, but it struck me as a little funny that in prim, proper, and genteel Latin, the bird is identified by its blue head, but in low-brow English, it’s got a yeller butt!
Gah. Make that prim, proper, genteel Greek.
Conga rats all the way ’round!
b&
Lou Jost’s report is an amazing example of adaptation. I’d use this example teaching kids the mysteries of evolution. I think they’d love thinking about poop figuring into the lesson.
Very cool story and pics Lou! This is fascinating! Good on you for all the years of planning too – it must be so rewarding to see it all work out.
Gorgeous pic of Desi too. All Stephen’s pics are great though.
Thanks!
Just a fantastic group of photos and information from both photographers. Thanks so much for starting my day with this post….
10 years in the making and now a beautiful photo. That is quite an accomplishment, and to me is the embodiment of some good ol’ fashioned field science. Thanks also for the interesting info on the shit-slime. Looks like you’ll have mistletoe in abundance. Is this species of mistletoe a parasite like the species that grow on Oak trees in the U.S.? And if so, would you have to remove some of the mistletoe if it gets too “healthy”?
Great stills and video Stephen…that is one huge fish! No catch and release for Desi!
Mark, yes it is a parasite. But the host tree seems fine, even though it is full of mistletoe. I’ll let nature run its course.
This story led me to Google mistletoe & the first page I looked at was Wikipedia’s. I was surprised to see that mistletoe had been labeled a keystone species. Do you agree, Lou? Fascinating stuff.
I had read the “keystone species” article before writing my story, but it seems kind of arbitrary to call it a keystone species. There are obviously species that depend on it, but we can say that about almost any plant.
Thanks for your professional opinion. “Keystone” seems to be a popular term these days. I should think that if it’s too freely applied it would lose all meaning.
It does apply to apex predators, of course.
Yes, apex predators are the epitome of ‘keystone’ species.
Scientists tend to over-use buzzwords like “keystone” in their article titles, to help their initial article submissions get the attention of journal editors (who must quickly decide whether an article is interesting enough to send out to peer reviewers for their journal).
Excellent, enjoyed that post, thanks all.
You just can’t beat stories like the E. cyanocephala/mistletoe one!! How can anyone not be just gobsmacked by evolution?
Fantastic backstory, Lou, and love the way you trained the male to pose so perfectly. 😉
I see from my field guide that the female Golden-rumped is fancier (and easier to ID) than many other female Euphonias. I hope one shows up soon to join that male!
Thanks. In fact they always travel in pairs, and on an earlier visit I managed to photograph the female, but my dirty window ruined the picture.
Ooh, even cooler!
I hope you’ve cleaned that window by now! :)(I should talk…)
Somehow, during all my years hanging around creationists, no one ever used this as one of their “isn’t god amazing” illustrations.
And this is why!
Great picture!