Greetings,
Whilst at Cheynes Beach (SW WA) recently a friend and I took some photos of a male Southern Emu-wren on top of a bush. Subsequent examination of his photos show some sort of food in the bill.
I’ve uploaded one of his photos to
in case anyone here has an idea what the prey item might be. I think I’ve ruled out Aardvark and Tapir so far, but could perhaps be persuaded otherwise…
Many thanks
Philip
Philip Griffin philipgriffin at gmail dot com Auckland, New Zealand ===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Allan my interpretation is slightly different.
Yes I think it is an orthopteroid insect. I agree about the sexual appendages however I think the ventral surface is being held away from the bird. The first joint of the hind leg is there but no abdominal segmentation is showing so I take it that these are the wings along the length of the body. From this I think that while it may be a grasshopper or stick katydid a stick insect or a mantis is more likely.
Regards, Alan
Hi Phil,
Looks like the back end of a grasshopper to me. It looks like one of the slender species, the gaping section at the end representing the reproductive parts, the flap section closer to the birds bill, the small growing wings suggesting the animal was at one of the nymph stages of growth. Most birds eat prey items very close to where they’ve caught them unless they they are a species that has a favoured anvil (e.g. Pittas) or butchering site (e.g. Butcherbirds) to deal with their prey. When a bird carries a food item any distance it usually indicates the feeding of a mate or chicks. In this case, I’d suggest that the Emu-wren is feeding chicks and is on the way to their location. As such, the absence of legs is no real issue, since parent birds often prepare prey items for chicks by taking the legs off insects like grasshoppers or the wings off moth species.
Kind Regards
Allan Richardson Morisset, NSW
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org ===============================