Sara Jane and I recently discovered a most curious behavior of the Am.
Goldfinch. For some time we had been noticing them feeding up in the
leaves of our beet plants. When I inspected the plants, I noticed
sections of the leaves were missing. I initially assumed that even
though they primarily feed on seeds, they might be excavating leaf
miners from the leaves, and while doing so coincidentally tore out
sections of the leaves. But when we watched them through binoculars, we
were astounded to see them clearly snipping off small bits of healthy,
uninfested beet leaves and ingesting them. When I looked up Am.
Goldfinch in the Audubon Encyclopedia of North American Birds, the
mystery was solved. They will indeed feed on leaves of some plants, and
in addition to the strange name of salad-bird, are also known by the
peculiar names of beet-bird (eat seeds of beet plants - ours have no
seed) and lettuce-bird. Had I not observed this behavior first-hand, I
think I would have been extremely skeptical had someone tried to tell me
that they feed on plant leaves!
This is the first time we have ever seen goldfinches feeding on leaves.
Has anyone else ever observed this behavior? Any thoughts as to what
benefit they may be deriving from feeding on leaves.
Larry
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W. Larry Hymes
120 Vine Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
(H) 607-277-0759, w...@cornell.edu
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