While they may just look like Instagram candy to us, certain flower buds can provide birds with nutrition in early spring before their preferred diet of fruits and seeds is available.
On Friday, local photographer Mark Teasdale trained his lens on some cherry trees near Spa Utopia in North Vancouver, where birds were chowing down on blossoms in the branches above.
Teasdale identified the birds as house finches and yellow-rumped warblers.
Having given up trying to find kingfishers at a nearby spot along the Spirit Trail, Teasdale spotted birds in the cherry trees on the way back to his car.
“I’m not really that keen on cherry blossoms,” he said. “But when you got the pinks and the different colours, yellows and blacks are great because those colours pop off the page.”
As Teasdale captured exposures of the birds darting among the branches, he noticed some interesting behaviour. At times, the warblers would completely bury their heads in the blossoms.
“So they’re blind to everything around them for a short period of time, while they get what’s inside the flower, and then they come back out,” he said.
Another of Teasdale’s photos shows a finch chomping blossoms clean off the branches. “I hadn’t seen that before,” he said.
When reached by phone on Saturday, the photographer was at Maplewood Flats taking photos of male hummingbirds feasting on yellow berries. “It makes for some nice colours,” he said.
Yellow-rumped Warbler in the cherry blossom in #NorthVan. Seen in the parking lot at spa utopia. pic.twitter.com/PwKSdBSiWl
— Mark Teasdale ★ (@MarksGonePublic) April 21, 2023
House finch in a cherry blossom tree. Looks like it is finding some lunch. #Japanesecherry #NorthVan pic.twitter.com/UhyfMDvKgA
— Mark Teasdale ★ (@MarksGonePublic) April 21, 2023
