Robins relish big, juicy earthworms, right? Well, how about the Elk River robin that visited a grape jelly feeder frequently this summer -- and not just for a sweet treat. He'd dunk a worm into the jelly, then gulp it down. The reader who sent this tale noted, "We enjoyed watching this epicure enjoying his gourmet meal."
We humans may have more rigid ideas about bird diets than birds themselves do. Many birds are eager learners when it comes to adding new items to their regimen. They watch each other, too, for clues about what's good to eat, which is probably how the robin caught on to the jelly. He'd seen an oriole or catbird slurping up the purple stuff and decided to try adding a condiment to his arthropod meal.
Other epicurean experimenters include some south Minneapolis crows that gathered at a back-yard picnic table for popcorn (unsalted) and fresh water. "They'd take the popcorn and either dump it into the water before eating it, or hold a kernel in their beaks and dunk it. This went on for 20 minutes and I was laughing out loud," writes a crow fan.
A natural smorgasbord
Since crows are omnivores, the whole world must look like a smorgasbord to them. Another reader reported that her neighborhood crows relish the fish heads she leaves out after cleaning freshly caught fish. Crows also clog up her birdbath fountain when they wash pieces of rabbit roadkill before eating it.
We don't think of cardinals as being flycatchers, but one reader reported seeing a cardinal fly out of a tree, "knock a butterfly to the ground, then pick it up and fly off." Somehow this cardinal had learned that there was a high-protein meal between those butterfly wings, and either ate it himself or took it to his youngsters.
I've also observed a cardinal fluttering like a hummingbird near a hosta stalk in late fall, pulling out its large, luscious seeds to eat.
Orioles are associated in our minds with oranges and grape jelly, and they certainly do enjoy those treats, even though the bulk of their springtime diet is made up of insects. But one observer reported tossing some old, freezer-burned corn-on-the-cob onto the compost pile one April day, then looking out later to see six orioles busy at the corn: "They ate the cobs clean, and it took them a couple of hours," she said.
