Interesting observation...

[Scott F]

Field Herp Forum • View topic - A very large meal (http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6675)

Click on the link, pretty cool.

Scott
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[guidofatherof5]

You're right. Cool.
Snake looks satisfied.:D

[ssssnakeluvr]

I just read that, real nice!!!

[RdubSnider]

That's shocking.

[Spankenstyne]

Very cool!

Damn I can't seem to log in over there.. It's been a while but I seem to not exist anymore hah. I also stopped getting email messages about missing back issues.. I must investigate further :D

[mb90078]

Very interesting. You always hear that birds are on the menu so to speak, but almost never see evidence, or even hear of eyewitness accounts like this.

[drache]

very cool, and very nicely reported

[ssssnakeluvr]

Very cool!

Damn I can't seem to log in over there.. It's been a while but I seem to not exist anymore hah. I also stopped getting email messages about missing back issues.. I must investigate further :D

total new website.... old one got lost by the server company and the owner of the site got screwed. they have rebuilt the site. was a big mess a while back.

[RedSidedSPR]

that's pretty cool, i knew they ate birds on occasion but...

[ConcinusMan]

Whenever they have the opportunity, of course they will. The older, larger, more experienced concinnus' in the wetlands know when and where to look. I've caught them in the act of raiding redwing blackbird nests before, or at least, attempting to. I've also used the ruckus the blackbirds make,(go to the location of the ruckus) to discover large garters nearby.

The bird that was in the picture nests on the ground, so there you go. Opportunity knocking.


Very cool!

Damn I can't seem to log in over there.. It's been a while but I seem to not exist anymore hah.

You probably don't then. A lot of accounts got deleted a while back.

[RedSidedSPR]

Hehe, stupid birds. :D (kidding, but seriously why build on the ground? :p)

[Hornets23]

Very interesting...particularly if it was a fully grown bird! I could maybe see a flegling easily being caught but crazy things happen in nature so I would belive just about anything..

[Bart]

YouTube - ‪garter snake eating a bird......snake, garter..‬‏ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrWjG14GKhM)

Little creepy, but indeed, they eat birds.

[RedSidedSPR]

Wow... prob not the best captive diet but that was pretty darn cool :D

[ConcinusMan]

Two of my big garters ate nestling starlings today. It's funny, they wouldn't touch them yesterday when they were fresh, but after they were frozen, thawed, and all bloody, then they took them readily.

[ConcinusMan]

Hehe, stupid birds. :D (kidding, but seriously why build on the ground? :p)

Plenty of birds do. I can think of 3 other songbirds right off the top of my head, that also nest on the ground in WA.

[RedSidedSPR]

i could too.. just saying whats the point? I was kidding

You feed your snakes birds? That safe?

[ConcinusMan]

I did today. They were mere hours out of the egg when I got them yesterday. Near as I can tell, the snakes are still alive, so I guess it's safe. Last time I checked, hatching songbirds weren't poisonous.

[RedSidedSPR]

Oh really? I thought they were,

Well, you don't here anything about birds as a good food source in the care sheets. Just surprised to hear you do that. Figured they might carry something. but if not... COOL!

[guidofatherof5]

I would have a difficult time feeding baby birds to my snakes.
I'm a bird person also.

[kibakiba]

I probably wouldn't mind depending on the bird. I wouldn't mind feeding my macaw, Willy, to Mama sometimes... I also wouldn't mind with blue jays, we have literally 60 of them smacking themselves into our birdfeeders every day. One died because it hit it wrong.

[RedSidedSPR]

I love birds too. Than again i like fish :D

[ConcinusMan]

I would have a difficult time feeding baby birds to my snakes.
I'm a bird person also.

So am I Steve. I was at one point, into birds as heavily as snakes. I was a volunteer for a wildlife rehab and my job was hand raising lots of different wild birds. I also used to have an aviary and bred raised cockatiels and military macaws when I lived in San Diego. If anything, what I learned made it easier for me to feed those baby birds to my snakes. Starlings are a menace in North America, to humans and native birds. Any time I see an opportunity to do so, I cull any nests I find. I've been waiting for these to hatch so at least they wouldn't go to waste. I'd rather feed hatchlings to my snakes, than to simply destroy the eggs.

[RedSidedSPR]

So am I Steve. I was at one point, into birds as heavily as snakes.

Same here. For years. I've always loved ANIMALS and hate seeing anything happen to them, but at the same time have never had a problem feeding them... ya know? Just how life works, only in captivity..

That's cool about the aviary and all that.

[ConcinusMan]

Technically, I'm still into birds just as much as snakes. Just not involved with them anymore. There's no way in heck I could have fed just any bird to my snakes. The only reason I did this is because starlings are so damaging to the environment and harmful/competitive to native species. The presence of starlings alone can account for 90% of the bluebird's decline.

Starling nests should be culled whenever possible but it does no good to destroy eggs. They'll just keep laying them. It's more effective to wait until they hatch so I figured why not feed them to my snakes instead of wasting them. Waiting until they hatch also makes it so they will run out of time. If you keep taking their babies they will keep laying, and keep wasting their efforts, and still not successfully reproduce. That's a good thing. Believe that.

One pair of starlings can become 16 pairs in just one season.:eek: They're reproductive rate is outrageous. The billions of birds you see today in America are all decended from just 6 pairs released in New York's central park, in 1906. They are now occupying all of north america and reeking havoc on the ecosystem. Those birds cost agriculture hundreds of millions of dollars every year and use up all the nesting spots that native birds would be using. If they find a bluebird nest, they will destroy the eggs/offspring and take over the spot for themselves. They are a menace.

So, you can see why I would have no problem raiding their nests and using their young to feed my snakes.:cool: Any time I find a nest that I can get to, I destroy it, and it's contents. It's done out of love for birds, not because I hate birds.

[RedSidedSPR]

I totally understand. You're doing a service to nature :D (and your snakes) I wouldn't feed birds either, because i like them, unless they needed to go. So i totally get it.

[Mommy2many]

Do the starlings destroy only bluebird nests or other bird's nests as well?

[RedSidedSPR]

everythings nests. They're just pests. I used to shoot them...

[ConcinusMan]

Do the starlings destroy only bluebird nests or other bird's nests as well?

Any bird. The only thing that stops them is if it is a very small bird, and the hole is too small for them.

Once a few years ago I discovered woodpeckers nesting in a hole in the wall of an abandoned building which I thought was really cool. After a while of seeing them come and go, I started hearing the cries of newborns. Shortly thereafter, I watched in horror as a couple of starlings got in there, picked the babies to shreds, and threw them out. A few weeks later, all that was there was a nest full of squawking, crapping starlings.:mad:

[kibakiba]

We had starling nests on our beck, where the covered part is. There were 6 nests and too much poop. It was literally in piles, even when we washed it off every day. Stupid birds were noisy as heck. I was tempted to use a broomstick and push them off the beams... But I'd be grounded until I was 18 (I was 13 at the time)

[RedSidedSPR]

I used to just take a air gun, (we had alot at that house) and pop everyone i see, because things like Richards woodpeckers kept happening and they were annoying the crap out of me.

Squawk! Squawk! Sq--- Gamo Whisper, with sharp-to-the-touch-pellets did the job :D

My dog loved it He's a bird dog, a brittany, (no longer called brittany spaniel) so he'd find them, point, i'd shoot, he'd go get them. So it was pretty fun.