Birds eating periodical cicadas

[Gabriel Foley]

Hi folks!

The cicadas have arrived! As a Canadian, I've always been too far north to experience a periodical cicada emergence, and I am ecstatic to get to see Brood X emerge this spring! Of course, I had to read up on cicadas and learn as much as I could about them--and I realized that there are surprisingly few bird species documented eating periodical cicadas.

To help remedy that, Gene Scarpulla and I put together a short survey that you can access here: https://bit.ly/BirdsEatingCicadas. If you see birds eating cicadas or feeding them to their young, please upload the sightings to our survey form, and we'll summarize the observations in Maryland Birdlife. 

I can't wait to hear what you see!

Thanks,

Gabriel Foley

North Bethesda

mddc...@mdbirds.org

--

Gabriel J. Foley, M.Sc.

Atlas Coordinator

Pronouns: he/him/his

Maryland & DC Breeding Bird Atlas 3

North Bethesda, MD

gabriel...@gmail.com | 202-407-3667

@birdnirdfoley   

[Phil Davis]

FYI ...

I got my Maryland state Swallow-tailed Kite AND Mississippi Kite, at the same time, hawking cicadas over Sean McCandless's house in Cecil County during the last emergence in 2004!

Phil

At 13:44 05/11/2021, Gabriel Foley wrote:

Hi folks!

The cicadas have arrived! As a Canadian, I've always been too far north to experience a periodical cicada emergence, and I am ecstatic to get to see Brood X emerge this spring! Of course, I had to read up on cicadas and learn as much as I could about them--and I realized that there are surprisingly few bird species documented eating periodical cicadas.

To help remedy that, Gene Scarpulla and I put together a short survey that you can access here: https://bit.ly/BirdsEatingCicadas. If you see birds eating cicadas or feeding them to their young, please upload the sightings to our survey form, and we'll summarize the observations in Maryland Birdlife.Â

I can't wait to hear what you see!

===================================================
Phil Davis, Secretary
MD/DC Records Committee
2549 Vale Court
Davidsonville, Maryland  21035     USA
301-261-0184
pda...@ix.netcom.com
===================================================

[Gail Mackiernan]

Me too!

Gail Mackiernan

Colesville

Sent from my iPhone

--
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Group 'Maryland & DC Birding'.
To view group guidelines or change email preferences, visit this group on the web at http://www.mdbirding.com
Unfamiliar with a hotspot mentioned on this list? Quickly locate it here - http://www.mdbirding.com/hotspot.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maryland & DC Birding" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to mdbirding+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/E1lgXGH-0009Jq-3q%40elasmtp-mealy.atl.sa.earthlink.net.

[Janet Millenson]

Great idea, Gabriel! Your survey asks only for 2021 sightings, however I have a vivid memory from 1970 of a House Sparrow picking apart a cicada that was not enjoying the experience.

--
Janet Millenson
Potomac, MD (Montgomery County)
ja...@twocrows.com

--

[Pat]

So did I!

Pat

Pat Valdata

Crisfield, MD

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

--

[Matthew Felperin]

I will be on a quest to document as many birds eating cicadas as I can!

Matt Felperin

Roving Naturalist - NOVA Parks

Park Naturalist - Patuxent River Park

Director – Patuxent Bird Club, MOS chapter

On May 11, 2021, at 4:59 PM, Pat <pval...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/609af048.1c69fb81.468e9.7edd%40mx.google.com.

[Paul O'Brien]

So far I have seen Great Crested Flycatcher, Veery, Indigo Bunting and House Sparrow munching on yummy cicadas.  I expect to see many more as my lawn was crawling with newly emerged larva this evening.

Paul O'Brien

Rockville,MD

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/D1C32CB9-28A8-4AFB-9FD2-7EB332D3061B%40gmail.com.

[Paul O'Brien]

Update for 5/12 on cicada munchers: Swainson's Thrush, Robin and Cardinal.

But more exciting is the report from Pat Scheid who saw a bright yellow Scarlet Tanager in the woods at the corner of Princeton and Fordham in the College Gardens subdivision of Rockville.  I saw one a few years ago with my son Michael in Boy Scout Woods on the Bolivar Peninsula in Texas.  It was about two feet from a bright orange Scarlet Tanager.  Amazing!

Paul O'Brien

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/310955049.1410298.1620792092198%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Paul O'Brien]

Update for 5/13.  Add Titmouse, Catbird and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.  The Swainson's Thrushes are gorging on cicadas.

[guine...@aol.com]

And the bird many birders love to hate  -  Starlings!

They're all over our front yard poking at the erupted holes in the ground.

I find them fascinating.

 

G. Frantz

Old Hannover Rd

Balto County

 

https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/829149755.458877.1620960127462%40mail.yahoo.com

.

[Paul O'Brien]

Update for 5/19 and 5/26.  Add Red-eyed Vireo and Carolina Chickadee.  As a follow-up on the yellow Scarlet Tanager, It turns out that Dave Sibley saw his first just last year and has posted an account as well as a beautiful painting.

Paul O'Brien 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/829149755.458877.1620960127462%40mail.yahoo.com.

[sus...@verizon.net]

This evening my wife and I were entertained by this Prothonotary Warbler that landed between us on the towpath near Violets Lock to continue collecting pieces of a cicada.  We weren’t there for the initial catch but we watched for several minutes as it repeatedly smashed and stabbed the cicada.  It took small chunks of it into the nearby woods to feed its nestlings, returned in under a minute to continue the massacre.

As people stopped to wait for me to take photos I explained what was happening and even told one couple the Alger Hiss and Whitaker Chambers story.  Hopefully this was a “spark bird” for a few of the witnesses. 

David Gersten

Silver Spring, MD


Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/473861163.516144.1622061071968%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Anir Bhat]

Great shot of Prothonotary warbler. Yesterday I was at Antietam Battlefield near the Burnside Bridge. Saw thousands of Cicadas, the nymphs and molted adults with bright red eyes. I also saw a female bluebird trying to catch them in the air. The collective noise they were making was quite deafening..

[Chas Argent]

I never realized how much I rely on hearing birds to find them until I went birding yesterday at Ft Frederick. The noise was overwhelming. The only birds I could really hear were the most insistent ones—Red-eyd Vireo, or Red-shouldered Hawk, for example.

~Chas Argent

Catonsville, MD

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/c09789b4-a03d-45b1-ac6d-2aae01635947n%40googlegroups.com.

[Janet Millenson]

The insect noise is indeed amazing, though Carolina Wrens are louder! The maximum cicada volume in our yard has been 82 dB so far. In 2004 they reached 86 dB.

--
Janet Millenson
Potomac, MD (Montgomery County)
ja...@twocrows.com

[Dean Mahlstedt]

I observed an Eastern Bluebird eating a cicada in a tree at the Howard County Conservancy on May 30.  On June 1st at Rockburn Park in Elkridge I spotted an American Robin eating a few on a trail path in the woods and also watched an Indigo Bunting eating one on a paved path near a parking lot.  Dean in Ellicott City

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 1, 2021, at 11:14 AM, Janet Millenson <ja...@twocrows.com> wrote:



--
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Group 'Maryland & DC Birding'.
To view group guidelines or change email preferences, visit this group on the web at http://www.mdbirding.com
Unfamiliar with a hotspot mentioned on this list? Quickly locate it here - http://www.mdbirding.com/hotspot.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maryland & DC Birding" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to mdbirding+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/59d1c48c-d017-bbaa-4059-e33bf68c8128%40twocrows.com.

[Don Simonson]

Downy Woodpecker, House Wren, Eastern Wood-peewee and House Sparrow catching cicadas in our yard in Darnestown Montgomery County. What a migration from below ground, a unique wonderful loud noise and spectacle!

Don Simonson, Darnestown

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/C2BBF351-23ED-419E-90C8-D4D3D1A29CE4%40gmail.com.

[Gail Mackiernan]

Was doing a bird count this am in Northwood Branch Park and had a male Baltimore Oriole fly down from the top of a tall tree, grab a cicada in the ground, and fly up onto a low branch to dismember and eat it. 

Gail Mackiernan

Colesville

Sent from my iPad

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/CAE2UgP06ijJfy1EDFm5mX24UR8dyFi1jg_onQhS08QR91-x8dA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Don Simonson]

Filmed a Prothonotary Warbler today catching and dismembering a Cicada on c and o canal towpath one mile upstream from Seneca MD acqueduct.

Good birding/eating!

Don Simonson

Darnestown 

[Scott G]

Ok, so this isn't a bird eating a cicada, but maybe even more interesting... a wolf spider eating a cicada:

Scott Garrison

[Mandrake Sumners]

For anyone interested there's a fascinating article about the interactions between cicada and bird populations here: https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/during-cicada-boom-birds-mysteriously-vanish

On Tuesday, May 11, 2021 at 1:44:42 PM UTC-4 gabriel...@gmail.com wrote:

[Dean Mahlstedt]

Saw a Summer Tanager eating a cicada at Alpha Ridge Park in Howard County.  Also saw a Northern Mockingbird chasing down (on foot) and eating a cicada in a Jimmy Johns parking lot in Ellicott City.  Dean in Ellicott City

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 3, 2021, at 10:09 AM, Mandrake Sumners <milli...@gmail.com> wrote:



--

-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Group 'Maryland & DC Birding'.
To view group guidelines or change email preferences, visit this group on the web at http://www.mdbirding.com
Unfamiliar with a hotspot mentioned on this list? Quickly locate it here - http://www.mdbirding.com/hotspot.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maryland & DC Birding" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to mdbirding+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/e201db7f-39a9-45f1-9fe0-f6f612666984n%40googlegroups.com.

[Steve Johnson]

Hello Gabriel,

Thank you for setting up this survey form.  I have been dutifully entering a record, each time I see (and identify) a bird with a cicada.  You mentioned that the results will be published in Maryland Birdlife.  I'll be very interested to see the results.  Will they be available anywhere else, or do I need to join MOS to see the cicada predation data?

Cheers,

Steve Johnson

Fairfax, Virginia

On Tuesday, May 11, 2021 at 1:44:42 PM UTC-4 gabriel...@gmail.com wrote:

[George Jett]

Folks

A friend photographed a Woodduck eating. a Cicada.  I saw

 a Fish crow eat one & a Starling catch one to eat.

I will forward the photo to Gene in case it is helpful.

George

Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

--

-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Group 'Maryland & DC Birding'.
To view group guidelines or change email preferences, visit this group on the web at http://www.mdbirding.com
Unfamiliar with a hotspot mentioned on this list? Quickly locate it here - http://www.mdbirding.com/hotspot.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maryland & DC Birding" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to mdbirding+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/ef8625d7-9504-4adc-8bcf-da63fd7b07fcn%40googlegroups.com.

[Aniruddha Bhat]

5 Bluebirds just fledged from my nest-box. The empty nest showed several Cicada carcasses.

You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "Maryland & DC Birding" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/mdbirding/zOxMDv-3ebw/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to mdbirding+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/1351850027.3057125.1624282668803%40mail.yahoo.com.