[BIRDWG05] More information on the diet of Greater Roadrunner

[Hank & Priscilla Brodkin]

Janine McCabe wrote:
> 
> While visiting my next door neighbor I was taking the time to show their
> 3 year old grand daughter a Painted Lady butterfly.  Just as the little
> girl noticed the fragile bug with pretty wings, along came a Greater
> Roadrunner and snatched it up, beating it against the ground to free it
> of the wings before eating the delicatessen.  The little girl screamed
> with glee.
> 
> This may not be a rare bird, but it seemed to me rare diet.  Has any one
> observed this before?
> 
> Great wonders in our own yards!
> Janine
> 

Janine -
Hi.  Many birds who eat butterflies beat off the wings.  Last year we
saw a roadrunner in our yard eat a Pipevine Swallowtail, a butterfly
that is poisonous because it's host plant is pipevine.  The bird seemed
to suffer no ill effects and did not beat off the wings first.
Of course it could have suffered a delayed effect later when it was out
of sight and regurgitated the butterfly then.


-- 
	             Hank & Priscilla Brodkin
	          Carr Canyon, Cochise County, AZ
                   Send Mailto:hankb at theriver.com
             SouthEast Arizona Butterfly Association
          http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabasa/home.html
         "Butterflies of Arizona - a Photographic Guide" 
           by Bob Stewart, Priscilla and Hank Brodkin 
         http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabasa/book.html

 
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