January 31 high temperatures made it into the mid 60’s, so I
decided to check out some ant mounds to see if there were any ants moving
about. There was no ant activity, but I
did notice several holes left by a foraging Flicker. Flickers on the ant mounds are a regular
occurrence.
Flicker holes are usually narrow and deep. I imagine they get their bill down the hole
and then fish for ants with their tongue.
I remembered the comment made last week by James Trager about Flickers
leaving droppings full of ant exoskeletons on the mound and began to search for
similar droppings here.
No ants in this rather loose dropping. I was wondering if the snail shell was
already in place before arrival of the dropping or if it actually went through
the bird.
This is what I was looking for. There’s a lot of material packed into this
little nugget.
Here’s a neat ant exoskeleton looking like it just took a
trip through a trash compactor. That’s pretty
good evidence that the birds are actually feeding on ants.
Crumbling the dropping reveals a great assortment of ant
parts.
Mixed in with the ants were many Eastern Red Cedar
seeds. Apparently the Flickers have also
been feeding on the cedar fruits. Thanks
for the tip James. It made for an
interesting investigation.
HI Steve...I just did a post yesterday on the Northern Yellow Shafted Flicker how funny is that...great minds...although my mind was not on there droppings...hahaha!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe your actual found this left of the ant ..what do they get to eat out of them ..it looks almost whole ???
If it eat the snail I'm sure it was very painful passing that... poor thing!!
Well this was another interesting post even if it was a little crappy ; }
Nice photos : }}}}}
Grace
Nice!
ReplyDeleteGrammie G. - It would be interesting to cut open some of these ant carcasses to see what's left inside of them. I suspect it would be little that's digestible.
We're making more investigative work for Steve with this discussion.
James ...Steve will be up for the challenge...I bet he will consult with you though!!...
ReplyDeleteHi Grace. Sorry about the crappy post. I've always got time to stop and look at stuff that's made the journey through an animal.
ReplyDeleteThe Flicker's digestive juices dissolve the soft inner parts of the ant. When the outer husk comes out, it looks whole, but it's just an empty shell.
Hi James. I'm afraid that I don't have the necessary equipment to successfully perform ant autopsies. My budget manager, AKA Wife, doesn't think I need a lot of expensive lab equipment in order to explore the back yard. I agree, but I can sure think of a lot of neat toys I would like to have.
In this case, small, moderately sharp scissors and a jewelwer's loupe would suffice. But I think you're right that they're doing a fair job of extracting the bits that are soluble in their digestive juices.
ReplyDelete