ML425664931

觀察細節

There are many more that I saw and heard. There is one pair that has stayed by my home all winter where I fed them citrus fruits, such as mikan and yuzu. This is also the second year that they have come for the berries on the Indian hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis indica). It ate these, down to the last one, even when I was providing citrus. It ate some kinkan from my tree after they had softened in winter. I also put out bird seed for sparrows and rufous turtledoves, and even though the bulbul did not eat this food, it would drive these birds away. It would get in a crouching position and slightly extend and flutter its wings in a threatening manner. All the birds take advantage of the water in the waterlily bowl that is filled with water all winter. On rare occasions a white-eye and a female daurian redstart came, attracted by the citrus, when the bulbul was absent. I also dropped chopped apple peel and core on a compost pile, which it would eat up in a day or two. They ate some spinach I had down to a nub. To a lesser extent it will eat other compost items such as lettuce, cucumber and carrot peel. It will also take old mikan peels, after they have been softened by rotting for a month, and will eat these. Today, it appears the bulbul ate a garden slug that had emerged during the night in the area of the compost. Two days ago, I saw a bulbul chasing a black butterfly (perhaps a Pyrgus maculatus based on the time of year, but I couldn't see). Other butterflies out today in the same area are the comma (Polygonia c-album) and cabbage white (Pieris rapae). In other years, I have seen bulbul eating the heads of chinese cabbage and persimmon rotting on the branch in the middle of winter. They also like sakaki berries (Cleyera japonica), the seeds of which they have deposited in their feces and which have sprouted in the garden; the same happens with Indian hawthorn seeds.