Speaking of Says' phoebes, I have a question about whether or not they would
eat box elder bugs. I have had a terrible infestation of Box Elder bugs for the
last couple of years and, last spring, I saw hundreds of baby Box Elder bugs
running around my garden.
I had Say's phoebes nesting just above my living room picture window this
summer and I noticed that I had almost no Box Elder bugs as the summer wore on.
I never saw them on the ground eating bugs so I wasn't sure that they would've
had anything to do with their absence.
By the way, there couldn't have been any cuter nestlings then the phoebes!
Instead of squawking for food, they had soft, whistling calls. They could rent
out my drainpipe anytime!
Deborah Carstensen, Littleton, Arapahoe county
Sent from my iPhone
> On Feb 3, 2016, at 10:43 AM, DAVID A LEATHERMAN <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Recently Bob Righter posed some interesting questions on COBIRDS about what
> an individual Say's Phoebe he observed recently in the Denver area might be
> getting to eat under eaves. Once I got past my amazement that Bob is related
> by marriage to someone 103 years old, my private response to Bob guessed the
> answer might include European Paper Wasps (Polistes dominula), an introduced
> black-and-yellow wasp closely resembling a typical "yellowjacket" that
> reached CO in the early 2000s. They form small combs under eaves and have
> become quite common. By contrast, most yellowjacket wasps species nest in
> the ground, with two nesting in aerial "hives" in trees with the combs being
> surrounded by an elaborate, round, gray paper mache covering. Unhatched
> immature European Paper Wasps, dead or alive, in white-capped cells of these
> combs would seem the most likely source of nutrition for a curious
> insectivore investigating eaves. Flycatchers are known to favor bees and
> wasps, in some situations as much or more than flies. My reply to Bob
> included photos of the wasp and a related situation of a pewee with a
> yellowjacket in it bill. Bob suggested I post this to COBIRDS. Thinking the
> photos were a significant part of the response, and since photo sharing on
> COBIRDS is difficult (why is that?), I didn't take him up on his suggestion.
> Then he wondered further if perhaps what seems like more wintering Say's
> Phoebes this year than normal could be directly tied to the increasing
> presence of European Paper Wasps on our scene. I told him without direct
> evidence, it was a stretch, but a question worth continuing to investigate.
>
> So, I am asking, has anyone out there seen a Say's Phoebe visiting a little
> wasp comb under an eave? Have you seen any other bird species tearing apart
> a wasp comb under an eave (flicker, barn swallow, etc.)? Inquiring minds
> want to know. Assuming, hoping, some meaty anecdotes are out there, this
> might be the subject of a future "The Hungry Bird" column in "Colorado
> Birds". Thanks.
>
> Dave Leatherman
> Fort Collins
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