Some Common Birds Useful to the Farmer (1926 edition)Beal, F. E. L. (Foster Ellenborough Lascelles)
Science
Some Common Birds Useful to the Farmer (1926 edition)
Beal, F. E. L. (Foster Ellenborough Lascelles)
Birds -- United States
The number of insects destroyed in a year by the black phœbe is
enormous. Fortunately, the examination of stomachs has supplemented
observation in the field, and we are enabled to give precise details. Of
the 333 stomachs examined, every one contained insects as the great bulk
of the food. Only 15 contained any vegetable food at all, and in no case
was it a considerable part of the contents of the stomach. The insects
eaten were mostly wasps, bugs, and flies, but many beetles also were
destroyed.
Useful beetles belonging to three families amount to 2.8 per cent of the
food. Other beetles of harmful or neutral species reach 10.5 per cent.
Wasps, the largest item of the food, were found in 252 stomachs and
were the whole contents of 15. The average for the year is 35 per cent.
Parasitic species were noted, but they were very few. Ants were found in
48 stomachs, and for a short time in midsummer they constitute a notable
part of the food. Various wild bees and wasps make up the bulk of this
item. No honeybees were found.
Bugs in various forms constitute 10.56 per cent and are eaten in every
month but May. Stinkbugs appear to be the favorites, as they were
contained in 10 stomachs. Plant lice were found in one stomach. Flies,
forming the second largest item, were found in 97 stomachs and completely
filled 3. They constitute the most regular article in the black
phœbe's diet. The maximum consumption occurs in April, 64.3 per cent.
The black phœbe well merits its title of flycatcher.
Moths and caterpillars amount to 8.2 per cent of the food. They were
found in 72 stomachs, of which 51 contained the adult moths and 28 the
larvæ or caterpillars. One stomach was entirely filled with adults. This
is one of the few birds studied by the writer that eats more moths than
caterpillars, for as a rule the caterpillars are largely in excess.
Flycatchers, taking their food upon the wing, would naturally prove
exceptions to the rule. Crickets are evidently not a favorite food of the
black phœbe, as they amount to only 2.45 per cent. They were found in
39 stomachs, but usually the amount in each was small, though one stomach
was entirely filled with them. Grasshoppers did not appear. Dragon flies
were eaten to some extent, and these illustrate the fondness of the
species for the neighborhood of water.
The vegetable matter eaten consisted chiefly of small wild fruits of no
economic importance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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