Scrounging for Food
By now, birds that have stayed the winter or migrated from further north as necessary to feast on natural seeds and fruit are finding short supplies. Earthworms and insects still may not be available. This photo shows a robin eating sumac, an emergency food for wildlife. Sumac is available in the spring only because nobody ate it during the winter.
Robins can strip the dry sumac fruits with their beaks, hungrily gobbling it down.
"Six male robins searching for worms on any bare ground here. Mostly we still have about 2 feet of snow and huge drifts. I will throw out frozen mountain ash berries and blueberries for them."
Karen H. Cooper, Maine April 3, 2015
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