Blue, Red, Rot

A Black-throated Blue Warbler hovering to bite bits out of a kousa dogwood fruit. This particular tree was hosting half a dozen species in its branches and on the ground, where a lot of the fruit had already fallen and was perfuming the air with rot.
A siren-song to fruit flies.
The Spot-winged Fruitflies, evidently, Drosophila suzukii.

2 Responses to “Blue, Red, Rot”


  1. 1 alanbar135 October 11, 2020 at 11:35 pm

    Did you see this season’s “magic” tree yesterday at Sylvan Water that had a huge number of Kinglets and warblers gobbling down very small insects? At one point there were somewhere around twenty-five birds in the same small tree. I was able to get as close as 6″ and the Kinglets didn’t pay any attention.

    • 2 mthew October 12, 2020 at 8:57 am

      I’ve had similar experiences around Sylvan recently. Cherry, wych elm, and dogwood (for the fruit in this case) just dripping with birds. The tiny flies (gnats?– I was unsuccessful in catching any) hardly seem like a meal, but then numbers matter.


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