Blue-winged Leafbird takes on a long-horned grasshopper

Posted by BESG on 30 October 09, Friday
Contributed by Jeffery K. Chan & Dr Leong Tzi Ming

Jeffery K. Chan documented a series of images showing a female Blue-winged Leafbird (Chloropsis cochinchinensis) eating an adult male Green Katydid (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) or long-horned grasshopper.

This leafbird regularly catches grasshoppers, including large ones. Here, the bird would have earlier subdued the grasshopper and in the process removed the limbs (above left). It then swallowed the insect head-first, wings and all (above right, below left). It apparently had one of the limbs with it, seen in the images (above right, below left) as the tinge of yellow to the right of the bird and on the branch, eating it last (below right).

An earlier post showed a Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) dismembered a long-horned grasshopper before eating it, unlike this leafbird that swallowed it without dismembering it.

Images by Jeffery K. Chan, Dr Leong Tzi Ming identified the grasshopper.

This post is a cooperative effort between NaturePixels.org and BESG to bring the study of bird behaviour through photography to a wider audience.

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A handicapped Blue-winged Leafbird Choo Teik Ju a.k.a choo was in China recently... Blue-winged Leafbird and mistletoe Calvin Chang a.k.a deswitch photographed a male Blue-winged Leafbird... Brown Shrike dismembers grasshopper Jason Cho a.k.a. jcho documented a Brown Shrike (Lanius... Flycatcher eats grasshopper: Photographic evidence Irfan Choo’s studies of the Dark-sided Flycatcher (Muscicapa sibirica)... Brown Wood Owl taking a grasshopper “Just came back from a short run up Peninsula... Blue-winged Pitta catching a snail An earlier post on the Hooded Pitta (Pitta sordida)... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

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Categories: Feeding-invertebrates

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