chickadees, cattails and moths

[Juile Grahn]

I think someone posted something a while back about wondering if birds used cattail fluff for insulation in their winter roost cavities.  Here are my observations with black-capped chickadees.  This and other winters I watched chickadees picking away at the seed heads of cattails.  They seemed to have no interest in the fluff they were pulling at other than removing it.  They were getting at something else deeper inside the cattail seed heads.   I watched a good while and never saw one take off with any of the fluff.  They or other birds certainly could be taking off with some at other times but I did not see it during my observations.  Somewhere I heard or maybe read about moths that lay eggs on the seed heads in summer.  After the eggs hatch, the larvae make their way into the seed head where they have a food source and a place to overwinter.  In spring they pupate and later emerge as an adult moth.  One of the moths that does this is the Shy Cosmet (Limnaecia phragmitella) and it is common in our area.  I suspect the chickadees I have observed are going after these larvae for their lunch.  I have to admit the fluff does look like it would make for some nice insulation.

If anyone has more information on this subject please add to this and correct me if I have made a mistake in what I have written.

If you see a patch of cattails with fluff flying around take a closer look and maybe you will spot a chickadee at work.  

Julie Grahn

[chip hanson]

Would those chickadees just be eating the seeds that area attached to the cattail fluff?

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[Toni & Rich Floyd]

That's what occurred to me, too.  --Rich

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[clever...@gmail.com]

Cattail seeds are pretty minute, so it would seem the ratio of energy out/energy in wouldn’t make this an adaptive strategy. Support for Julie’s idea, anecdotally at least, was found in this post from Nature Manitoba:

 

“Bill (Marchel) managed to photograph a chickadee extracting a small grub from a cattail head, which was identified by entomologist Robert Dana as almost certainly the larva of a Shy Cosmet moth (Limnaecia phragmitella), a tiny but widespread species whose larvae feed on cattail heads. The action of these larvae is known to cause cattail heads to burst apart, which may well be a visual cue for foraging chickadees, as well as giving them a starting point for tearing up the heads. This moth is not the only insect to feed on cattail heads, so other species may also provide food for foraging chickadees.”

 

I was unable to access the link, but Robert Dana is a well-known butterfly/moth expert at the DNR.

 

Steve Wilson

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[Juile Grahn]

I think I read the same article Steve. Thank you for posting this.  I agree a fat grub would be a far better food source for the birds than the seeds unless they had a way to get a good mouthful of them in a single bite.   I wonder how hard it would be to sepperate the seeds, from all that fluff.  Maybe someone with  a better camera might get some photos that might reveal some more evidence of what else those little chickadees are up to.  They have been surviving winters for a long time.  Who knows what other little tricks they have up there feathery sleeves.   

Julie

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