Bananaquit feeding from a cactus fruit opened by a brown-throated parakeet on the island of Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles.
Call for contributors to a Caribbean-wide investigation of psittacine-vertebrate commensal relationships!
We are seeking ecologists who have observed vertebrates (here Anoles) feeding on items (fruits, cacti and other stem-sap, or flowers) that some wild native Caribbean psittacine (Macaw, Parrot, or Parakeet) has opened and/or discarded. By opening and/or discarding food items, some psittacines may routinely provide access to resources that might otherwise be out of reach or at least more costly to acquire.
Bananaquit feeding from a parrot-opened orange on the island of Dominica, eastern Caribbean.
We anticipate that the majority of our contributions will be anecdotal and opportunistic field observations. Our deadline to collect all submitted observations is December 1, 2020. All contributors in this project will be listed as co-authors on a manuscript tentatively titled: Caribbean psittacines as indirect controllers of ecosystem dynamics through commensal feeding associations. Here is a template that outlines the types of information that we are hoping to receive from contributors.
Above and to the left are two photos, as examples, of how psittacines provide opportunities for birds to find food (sugary juice, pulp, and even insects) by opening fruit in both an agro-ecosystem and a natural dry forest system.
Please contact Leo Douglas at lrd2107@columbia.edu or leo.douglas@nyu.edu with any questions or for further information. Looking forward to hearing from you!
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