Birds
eat many things that seem none-too-appealing to us: beetles,
flies, spiders, earthworms, rotting fish, offal, poison oak
berries, weed seeds, and so on. Not only that, most birds
have diets that are quite monotonous -- some passerines may
go for weeks on a diet composed largely of grasshoppers,
Brants dine almost exclusively on eelgrass, and Snail Kites
rarely if ever taste anything but snails. In spite of this,
the nutritional requirements of birds are not very different
from ours; they need proteins, fats, carbohydrates,
vitamins, and minerals. Carbohydrates and fats are
used primarily as energy sources, but proteins -- more
specifically the nitrogen-containing amino acids that are
the building blocks of proteins -- are needed for
construction of tissues, enzymes, and so on. Reproduction,
growth, and molting all require more nitrogen than simple
maintenance of the body, and proteins are the source of that
nitrogen. Birds, such as Red-winged Blackbirds, that are
omnivorous (eating both plant and animal food) increase the
proportion of protein-rich animal food they eat in the
breeding season. Many that are herbivorous (primarily eating
plant foods), such as sparrows, may subsist for much of the
year on a relatively low-protein vegetable diet, but in the
breeding season they take as many insects as possible, and
often provide their young with a diet comprised entirely of
insects. Similarly, wood warblers,
which are considered carnivorous (dining mostly on animal
food), will feed themselves and their young virtually
exclusively on insects in the breeding season. Like many
thrushes and other more omnivorous species, they may have
berries and other plant foods as a substantial portion of
their fall-winter intake. And nectarivores, such as
hummingbirds, must also catch insects to provide protein to
balance their energy-rich but nitrogen-poor intake of
nectar, especially when breeding. It is, of course, no
miracle that protein-rich food sources just happen to be
more abundant during the breeding season. Just the reverse
-- evolution has timed the breeding season so that it occurs
when the needed nitrogen can be obtained. Birds' mineral requirements
seem much like ours. Calcium, which is needed in large
quantities for egg production, is a critical mineral
nutrient for reproductively active female birds. It is
thought that shortage of calcium may restrict the
reproductive output of vultures, which devour only the soft,
calcium-poor parts of carcasses. This may be the reason that
some African vultures, as well as our Black and Turkey
Vultures, supplement their diets with small vertebrate prey
that can be swallowed whole. Calcium, is of course, also
critical for reproductively active female human beings, who
must produce large amounts of calcium-rich milk. Avian needs
for vitamins are also similar to the human requirements.
Unlike us, however, many birds manufacture vitamin C in
their kidneys or liver, or in both. As with human beings, what
birds eat is determined by more than their brute nutritional
requirements. Various kinds of learning play an important
role. For instance, once a bird has discovered a certain
kind of palatable prey, it may form a "search image" for
that prey and specialize for a time in eating it.
Experiments also indicate that a bird's feeding preferences
can be influenced by its diet as a nestling. The
best-documented learning pattern in birds is the speed with
which Blue jays learn to avoid foods that make them sick.
Many monarch butterflies contain heart poisons, cardiac
glycosides, which they obtain as caterpillars from the
milkweed plants they feed on. A jay that has never seen such
a monarch before will eat it and then suffer a bout of
vomiting brought on by the glycosides. Subsequently the bird
will not touch a monarch butterfly or even a viceroy
butterfly, which closely mimics the monarch. Here again bird
behavior is much like human behavior. A person who gets
violently ill soon after eating a particular food may be
unable to stomach that food again, even if he or she knows
that the sickness was caused, not by food, but by a virus.
Nausea is a powerful teacher for both mammals and
birds. Changing availability of
different kinds of food can also be a crucial factor in what
is eaten. Many birds will opportunistically switch to a new
food source that suddenly becomes abundant. The immortalized
sea gulls that saved the Mormons' crops from a locust plague
did that; when seventeen-year cicada ("locust") broods
emerge, many birds switch from whatever they have been
eating to gorge on cicadas. Hobbies (Eurasian falcons that
look like small Peregrines) are reported to catch and eat
more swifts in cool cloudy weather than in warm sunny
weather. Apparently the lack of insects in the gloom weakens
the swifts, making them easier prey for the
Hobbies. SEE: Breeding
Season;
Hummingbirds,
Nectar, and Water;
Hoarding
Food;
Drinking. Copyright
® 1988 by Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin, and Darryl
Wheye.