From: <carolinabirds-request...> on behalf of "Christopher Hill (via carolinabirds Mailing List)" <carolinabirds...>
Reply-To: Christopher Hill <chill...>
Date: Wednesday, September 4, 2024 at 12:52
To: Kent Fiala <kent.fiala...>
Cc: carolinabirds listserve <carolinabirds...>
Subject: Re: Inter-species Feeding?
Yeah, I noticed that, too. Old black and white photo did show it. Still, the video does show the male Cardinal's fascination with all the open mouths.
Chris Hill, Ph.D.
Professor
Biology Department
Coastal Carolina University
Office: Science2 207H
(843) 349-2567
email: <chill...>
On Sep 4, 2024, at 12:43 PM, Kent Fiala <carolinabirds...> wrote:
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Interesting that the Cardinal in the video is not actually delivering any food.
Kent Fiala
On 9/4/2024 11:13 AM, Christopher Hill (via carolinabirds Mailing List) wrote:
BQ_BEGIN
Cardinals, especially Cardinal dads, are known for being very attentive parents, and they respond to the stimulus of an open begging mouth by stuffing food in it, sometimes even when inappropriate.
There's a semi-famous black and white photo of a cardinal that got in the habit of feeding some goldfish in a pond. Imagine open goldfish mouths at the surface. Irresistable, right? The cardinal stuffed food in them. The goldfish were easily convinced this was a good deal and things went on from there.
But it's one thing reading it in a book and another seeing it yourself. As I mentioned in another thread, having bird feeders outside our windows not only allows us to see things we would otherwise miss, but it also creates conditions (hungry birds and parents of multiple species in the same place, literally standing in food) making some rare behaviors more likely.
On Sep 4, 2024, at 11:06 AM, David Price [ mailto:<photobug...> | <photobug...> ] wrote:
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I saw an immature house finch, an adult female house finch, and a female cardinal on one of my feeders. The adult house finch hopped to a different feeder.
The immature house finch fluttered its wings while beside the female cardinal and the cardinal fed it THREE times, then flew away.
Is inter-species feeding common? This is the first time I’ve noticed it.
