Dr. Tallamy is requesting that bird photographers and birders throughout the country send him photos of birds with insects in their bill.\u00a0He and his\u00a0team of entomologists have embarked on a long-term research project to document\u00a0which insects are eaten by which birds all over the US (especially during breeding season).\u00a0Their primary concern is the “conservation and restoration of viable bird habitat. We can’t manage habitats for breeding birds without knowing what breeding birds eat while reproducing.” And he’s asking for our help<\/p>\n
Dr. Tallamy provides a superb explanation as to why\u00a0identification of the insect prey is so\u00a0important\u00a0on\u00a0their website. He does a much better job of it than I ever could so I hope\u00a0bird photographers\u00a0will\u00a0read it<\/a>.<\/p>\n So yes, yesterday morning immediately after Meghann’s Facebook comment I used the form provided on their site to send\u00a0them my photos of the sapsucker with insects in its bill.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And later yesterday morning I photographed this Yellow Warbler with an insect in its bill so I sent it to them soon after I\u00a0arrived home.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This\u00a0is an older\u00a0photo I’m planning on sending to them soon\u00a0– a Savannah Sparrow with eyes bigger than its stomach. And I’m sure I’ll be sending them more photos\u00a0down the road.<\/p>\n But any photos you send don’t necessarily\u00a0have to be this detailed. Even if they can’t see enough detail in the “bug” to ID it to exact species his entomologists will attempt to narrow it down to order, family or\u00a0genus and that will be helpful too. Then they’ll feed the data back into their searchable database so the information can be used by others\u00a0to conserve and restore viable bird habitat.<\/p>\n I strongly encourage anyone who ever takes photos of birds with\u00a0insects in their bills to send them to Dr. Tallamy and his team using this link<\/a>\u00a0on the same site. I’ve bookmarked the site and plan to use it whenever I get an appropriate photo.<\/p>\n After all, bird photographers need subjects to photograph and this study will help birds.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n Note: Though Dr. Tallamy specifically asks for bird photos with insects in their bills\u00a0in two places on the site he broadens it out to any Arthropod species. So that would also\u00a0include prey items like spiders, ticks, scorpions, millipedes, centipedes and even crayfish.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And you don’t have to be an accomplished photographer to participate. If you photograph birds on any level you’re likely to eventually get some photos that would be helpful.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/yellow-warbler-2766-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"yellow-warbler-2766-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/savannah-sparrow-4908-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"savannah-sparrow-4908-ron-dudley\\"")
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