Cardinal eating elm samaras, bonus bluebird

A Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) leans into some tasty American Elm (Ulmus americana) samaras. I was standing quietly near a woodland pond, watching the behavior of a pair of Wood Ducks, when I saw the red bird flit into the young elm. I figured he'd be after the fruit, and sure enough he was.

Trees undoubtedly evolved prodigious fruit production to counteract very high levels of predation by fruit-eating animals such as this cardinal. Even a young elm such as this produces far more seeds than could ever germinate and grow. And many samaras never even fall to the ground. They are plucked as soon as they ripen.

Caught in the act! An elm samara dangles from the cardinal's thick seed-crushing bill. He spent several minutes in the tree and wolfed down many elm fruits in that time. I'm sure many other birds regularly hit the tree and other elms in the area. I have seen a number of bird species harvest elm fruit over the years, but seldom get chances to photo-document them. I suspect it is because elms typically occur in dim haunts or thickety areas, the trees and their fruit are not overly conspicuous nor in biological hotspots likely to attract people such as myself, and thus I'm just not in the opportunity zone a lot.

As an aside, Dutch Elm Disease (Ophiostoma ulmi), a fungus which entered the Americas from Europe in the early 1900's, has ravaged American Elms. The stately tree once was used widely as an ornamental street tree. Today, DED has laid waste to the giants and big trees are increasingly hard to find. CLICK HERE for the tale of a giant Ohio elm that I long admired but finally met its demise a few years ago.

However, young American Elms remain abundant. Once they reach a certain size, the fungus invades and eventually kills them, but they are replaced by other young trees. It would be great if DED somehow hit a wall and eventually vanished, but there are no signs of that happening insofar as I am aware. But even saplings fruit heavily, thus they are an important natural food source for birds and various mammals.

Later that morning, this gorgeous Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) landed nearby as I stood there, camera on tripod and ready to go. He and his mate had occupied a nest box not far off, and I think he came over to check out the interlopers. I find it nearly impossible to resist photographing bluebirds, especially when they present themselves as nicely as this bird did. His upperparts are cloaked in what may be the finest shade of blue, ever.