Crested Shrike-tits are the classic bark-feeders. The beak is really well adapted for the job – strong, narrow from side to side so it can be slid under a bark-edge, then turned at right angles to use the claw-hammer curve to lever the bark away from the tree and very strong neck muscles – plus the notched tooth-like tip which gives a splendid grip. They also peck open galls and moth cocoons. Bird-bander folk-lore has it that it can (and does) rip your thumb-nail off! As well as the calls, the sound of falling bark always gives away a feeding party. Anthea Fleming On 3/03/2015 1:00 PM, David Adams wrote: > I was out for a few minutes around 7am this morning near my house (Far > South Coast of NSW) and heard lots and lots of bark feeding. This is > usually kind of fun to track down as you can often see birds doing > something interesting. I’m used to seeing White-naped Honey-eaters > play a neat trick of pulling off some bark and then floating down to > catch whatever comes out. And, of cousre, Sitella are great ones for > pulling at bark, one way or another. > > Anyway, when I was out this morning and heard the noise I was > figuring/hoping it was a bunch of Sitella…but I didn’t hear anything > like them calling. Instead, what I found were a lot of New Holland > Honey-eaters gleaning along the branches, which I don’t normally think > of them doing. (They spend their time in blossoms around here in the > day.) I also noticed lots of Lewin’s Honey-eaters, maybe five? We’ve > got a couple of young around right now so numbers are denser than > usual. I saw one on a branch prying open one of those gum leaves that > spiders hide in. Then I saw at least one more going after another one > of those leaves that was still suspended in a spider-thread, they way > they are. At least one of the other looked like he was hunting for > spider leaves. > > I’m assuming everyone here knows about those leaves. You see them in > the bush all the time, a single dead leaf all curled up like a scroll > hanging in space suspended on either side by a thread. There’s a > spider sleeping in there, or so I’ve been shown. So, the Lewins seemed > to be targetting them very specifically. It makes sense, they’re the > right size bird to get the job done and I’m sure the spiders are a > treat for them…but I’d not noticed this before. > > Is there any chance any of you have noticed this? I’d be curious about > bark-feeding observations in general for different species around Aus > as well, for that matter. > >
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