FOOD OPTIONS- THOUGHTS?

[Perris]

You might find this interesting; I posted it on another thread the other day and it came to mind when reading some of the responses you've received.

The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Ornithology (CUP 1991) opens its chapter on Food with this:

"The ability to fly has been the dominant influence on avian adaptation, and the energy needed for flight has meant that birds tend to ingest and digest quantities of food of high nutritive value. Thus, although birds now exploit almost everything that lives upon, over or just beneath the earth's surface or in the shallow layers of its waters, they are, and have always been, predominantly animal-eating.

Most bird species eat arthropods, especially insects. Many of these insects are caught on the vegetation that they themselves consume, and this close association between plants and birds over millions of years has presumably given rise to the eating of seeds and berries, and to the sucking of nectar from blossom...

Arthropods, notably insects, provide sustenance for a greater number and variety of birds than any other plant or animal food...

Most birds are catholic in their tastes, taking a mixture or items, and stable populations are composed of omnivorous individuals that can adjust their habits when one type of seed, berry or insect, for instance, becomes scarce or another common. Many of the most successful species have been those living in close proximity to man...

Many birds also change their diet with age, and protein-rich foods such as insects are a common food for rapidly growing youngsters which are vegetarian as adults."