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51. KRULIK, GERALD, Birding With Bromeliads , PUP TALK (Saddleback Valley Bromeliad Society),
15(8) p.6-8, August, 2008.


Birding With Bromeliads

By Jerry Krulik

We have many birds which use our yard as a big feeding station. While it is too small to be the
permanent territory of any bird, we border on an extensive landscaped slope which is community-
owned and locked up. There is plenty to do in our plant-filled yard, from eating to singing to hiding
to interacting to nesting. Mixed species flocks of warblers, sparrows, finches, and others flow
through the yard several times a day, harvesting seeds, spiders, insects, and small fruits. Many
other birds can be glimpsed here, including wrens, flycatchers, starlings, blackbirds, cowbirds,
and grackles. Few except hummingbirds seem to pay any special attention to broms, except when
combing through them for eatable tidbits. Note that we do NOT use insecticides in our yard, unless
there is an especially heavy aphid or mealie bug problem.
Here is tip for a non-toxic solution which does not harm lizards, spiders, most predaceous insects,
or birds. Spray ant infestations with flea treatment formulations which contain Precor or the
equivalent insect growth regulator. This chemical is not an insecticide, but an insect growth
hormone. The ants take it back to the nest, where it prevents the larvae from turning into adult
ants. The larvae just get larger, then eventually die. It does the same to fleas and many other
insects, eventually breaking the life cycle by indirectly killing only the young. I only use this on ant
colonies which have invaded my home, as the native ant colonies in the yard help prevent fire ant
colony establishment.
There are a few birds which have a somewhat stronger association with our brom collection. Here
are my stories.

Crows Using Bromeliad Feeding Stations.

Tank bromeliads, especially cultivated ones, hold lots of water yet we never hear of aquatic-type
birds paying any attention to them. Some members do report having tree frogs in their bromeliads.
This can be a temporary thing due to the lively curiosity of crows. Margaret told me that she had
seen a tree frog in her brom collection. Soon she saw a crow who evidently also saw it. The crow
pulled the frog out and ate it.

We have a back fence which is festooned with Spanish Moss and a wide variety of other
Tillandsias, Aechmeas, Bilbergias, Neoregelias, etc. I have been putting our over-ripe bananas on
top of the wooden posts between the broms. The crows have learned to like this fruit. The ripe
bananas usually fragment and fall in among the broms, where the crows eat them. Sometimes they
let the bananas dry out in the hot sun, and then they can easily fly off with a whole partly dried
banana in their beaks.

Quail Nests In Bromeliads.













Some years ago I had a border of assorted bromeliads lining the dry stone streambed in my front
yard. Once day I watered them especially heavily. I was very surprised to see an adult quail run
out, followed by 12! tiny babies. Even though I had two cats at the time, neither they nor I had any
idea we even had quail in the neighborhood. Under the brom leaves was a neat nest filled with
eggshells. I had no qualms checking it out, since quail don’t return to the nest once their eggs
hatch. The quail evidently had sat quietly through previous lighter waterings.

Mourning Doves Nesting in Broms













Mourning doves pay little direct attention to broms, since they eat mostly dry seeds. I would
assume that they may eat seeds of Hechtias, Puyas, etc, but this is very hard to document since
you can’t tell what they are picking up from the ground. However, they do like to nest in among our
broms. One set up a nest in our front yard porch in Terry’s brom and orchid collection. Terry had
hung a decorative basket in among the plants, and this was appropriated by a nesting pair of
doves.
Our back patio has tall plastic multi-level shelving packed with potted broms. The mourning doves
are always investigating the top shelves, sitting on the plants and disappearing between them.
Numerous times we have discovered their flat loose nests in between the pots. They often watch
us without moving when they are brooding their eggs, as we try to carefully water lightly around
them. Doves have raised several broods of babies in our brom collection. I found that if you are
very slow and careful, you can sometimes pet the young birds before they learn to fly away.

Hummingbirds Enjoying Our Bromeliad Smorgasbord.

Everyone knows how much hummingbirds enjoy bromeliad flowers. They are the primary
pollinators of many types, especially the popular Tillandsias, Aechmeas, Vrieseas, Dyckias, and
Puyas. This has been a good year for these birds in our garden. We keep a few flowering broms,
plus gasteria-type succulents, on the table outside our eating table window. This gives us lots of
opportunities to see them cross-pollinate our flowers, chase each other, and critically watch us
close-up when we invade their territory. We had a large fluffy bright orange male Rufous
hummingbird take over the back fence bromeliad area. This is the first time we have seen this
gorgeous species. It hung around for months this spring. Closer to the house we see mostly Anna’
s and Allen’s hummingbirds, the males being adorned by red and by green feathers, respectively.
The front yard bromeliads are dominated by a Black-chinned hummingbird. I have not yet located a
tiny hummingbird nest, though I had suspicions of one last year in one of our backyard trees.

Here is a Rufous hummingbird.













House Finches Nesting in Tillandsias.

I love the colorful house finches. The male has a bright red top half, while the female is brownish.
They are very tolerant of humans, and often nest close to homes.
My first nesting house finches built a nest in a large hanging pot of Epiphyllum orchid cactus,
under our patio roof right next to the house. Our two cats would sit under the nest/pot and stare
upwards at the sound of cheeping babies whenever they got out of the house. Fortunately all four
babies successfully fledged and left home.

I wrote an earlier article (here is the direct link: http://www.aecphotos.com/twentyfourarticlesfile.
html) about a colony of house finches which were ravaging my son’s Spanish Moss to build their
nests.














This summer we have had a new pair of house finches spending a lot of time looking over all the
bromeliads which have been growing at the highest elevations, or hanging suspended, under our
back patio. Finally they selected a hanging group of Tillandsias, potless, dominated by several
Tillandsia secunda but with smaller types growing together with it. The birds built a nest on the
lower leaves, entering and leaving by an inconspicuous back entrance inside the patio and
directly above our kitchen sink. We anticipate a lot of fun in watching the parents and babies
interact, once the eggs hatch.




























































52. KRULIK, GERALD, ADDENDUM: Birding With Bromeliads, PUP TALK (Saddleback Valley Bromeliad
Society), 15(9), p. 2, September, 2008.

No sooner did the finches successfully fledge and leave home, than we got another nesting
couple. A pair of mourning doves put their nest on the top shelf of one of the bromeliad areas, at
eye level, directly opposite our kitchen door. They watch us come and go a dozen times a day, and
are very tame. So far they have not flushed, even with light watering and near-by plant clean-ups.





























References:

Hummingbirds
1.        http://www.natureali.org/hummer_id.htm

2.        http://www.mschloe.com/hummer/hummers.htm

3.        http://montereybay.com/creagrus/hummingbirds.html. See this especially for the great
photos.

House Finches
4.        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Finch

5.        http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/House_Finch.html

6.        This is a neat video on nesting house finches.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?
docid=7727134378079930001&q=house+finches&ei=jJpmSP3lIpHmqQO3itihAw

7.        This crow video shows their intelligence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhmZBMuZ6vE

8. http://www.laspilitas.com/California_birds/California_birds.html. This shows them all, quail,
crows, doves, hummingbirds, etc.
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