How often do birds predate butterflies ? (1 Viewer)

[osborne]

How often do birds kill butterflies ?

Supposedly, bright colours are a butterfly defence mechanism warning birds to stay away from them ( bright colours = disgusting taste ). However not all butterflies are bright ! Are duller ones more likely to fall victim to birds ? Has anyone here witnessed a bird killing a butterfly ? Incidentally, I have once when I saw a Sedge Warbler with a Meadow Brown in it's beak.

Also when I see a butterfly with partly torn wings, is that always a sign of a bird attack ?

 

[Michael Frankis]

I thought butterflies predated birds by about a hundred million years?

Michael

 

[osborne]

Sorry, I've edited the post. I meant 'predate' as in predator i.e 'prey on' but looking in the dictionary there is no such meaning for that word !

 

[Bluetail]

Oh yes there is - you just need a larger dictionary!

Predate, v. i. & t: Act as predator (of); catch and eat (prey).

It's just Michael's sense of humour.

 

[osborne]

I couldn't tell whether he was being serious or not - I thought he perhaps hadn't read the content of the post because he was bemused at the title ! Michael usually posts an emoticon if he's joking so that confused me !

 

[Michael Frankis]

Partly serious, partly joking

'predated' is a term that we try to keep out of publications like Birds in Northumbria, because it doesn't have that meaning in most dictionaries, and could be misunderstood by readers

As to birds catching & eating butterflies, it does happen occasionally, but not too often, I suspect for two main reasons, 1, they're fairly hard to catch, and 2, they have big wings that make them tricky to eat, you have to sit around a while bashing the wings off before you can swallow it.

So the energy gained by eating it is not too good compared to the energy expenditure of catching and de-winging. Also bashing a butterfly's wings off is a fairly conspicuous activity, before you know it, you've been nailed by a Sparrowhawk that saw the butterfly wings shaking around oddly (and there's those big wings flailing around obscuring your own vision, too)

Young butterflies before they get their wings (i.e., caterpillars) are popular food of course

Michael

 

[helenol]

I did watch a blackbird once chasing a butterfly on the ground! Very amusing to watch too.

 

[KC Foggin]

I watch mockingbirds grab moths out of the air all the time but never butterflies.

 

[CyberDoc]

I saw a Paradise Flycatcher with a white butterfly in its mouth yesterday. I had my camera with me and I am kicking myself for not having taken the picture. I guess I thought it was common for birds to eat butterflies.

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I remember birding in a wood near my parents in Northampton and being very pleased to see a Purple Hairstreak flitting around a small oak tree. This was a pretty unusual sighting; in fact it may have been the first site record. I carried on watching it for a few minutes and then...

... it got eaten by a Spotted Flycatcher!!! :eek!:

 

[gillian]

Maybe another way the wings get tattered is by cats!
I have seen cats sitting by our buddleia bush drooling as they wait to try to catch a butterfly or two!
Gillian

 

[harry eales]

Supposedly, bright colours are a butterfly defence mechanism warning birds to stay away from them ( bright colours = disgusting taste ). However not all butterflies are bright ! Are duller ones more likely to fall victim to birds ? Has anyone here witnessed a bird killing a butterfly ? Incidentally, I have once when I saw a Sedge Warbler with a Meadow Brown in it's beak.

Also when I see a butterfly with partly torn wings, is that always a sign of a bird attack ?

Having some 45 years of field experience in catching and recording lepidoptera the answer is yes, birds do catch and eat a lot of butterflies, but they catch many more than they eat. Many birds catch butterlies by striking at the underside wing spots and end up with a beakfull of wing. Many butterflies escape when the bird tries to readjust the position of the insect.

Many escaped butterflies do bear the beakmarks on their wings in most cases it just scales that are removed, in others a thin wedge of wing is removed. Not all wing damage is caused by birds, grass stems and other vegetation can also do damage.

I've certainly seen sparrows try and catch moths which have been disturbed during the daytime. Hobbies where they occur, do take moorland dayflying moths as part of their diet and also Dragonflies.

The worst predators in my mind are Meadow Pipits that search around tussocks of grass on bogs and mires looking for emerging Large Heath butterflies and eat them before their wings have expanded.

Harry

 

[osborne]

Thanks Harry,

The Sedge Warbler I was referring to had the Meadow Brown in a risky position. Almost all of the butterfly was hanging out the bird's mouth and I figured at the time that there was a good chance that the butterfly would escape as the Warbler needed to do a serious reposition of its prey i.e it needed to open it's mouth wide and then snatch meaning that this butterfly probably escaped.

 

[pete woodall]

I've recorded a few instances of this in Australia.
Willie Wagtail feeding on Varied (Common) Eggfly hypolimnas bolina and
Evening Brown Melanitis leda

But previously I had watched a Whimbel feeding on Blue Tiger Tirumala hamata butterflies on Scawfell Island on the Great Barrier Reef. Many of the butterflies were
coming down to drink on the beach and the Whimbrel caught 14 from the ground [12 were caught and then lost; 16 unsucessful attempts] and 0 successful from 8 attempts in the air.
Of interest is that the Blue Tiger is in the subfamily Danainae, many of which are distasteful, and the Blue Tiger has been shown to have high levels of the alkaloid lycopsamine. It has been suggested that there is variation in the levels of these
chemicals present at different times and this Whimbrel certainly didn't seem to mind eating these Blue Tigers. [Sunbird 1996 26: 46-48]

It was an interesting way to spend a couple of hours on the beach.

Pete