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Posted by Arthur on 22:36:50 11/27/06
I have been reintroduced to the word "commensal or commensal feeding" as it relates to birding. I observed this behavior a lot at Ding Darling this weekend. Having asked several Tropical birders about the word several months ago and nobody seemed to know it I thought others might be interested.
Here is a perfect description of the word by the Stokes from a website of 1-1-2001 (http://www.stokesbirdsathome.com/birding/journal/):
"We are in Sanibel, Florida, for the winter months and trying to do as much looking at birds as our work day permits. Recently we have been interested in the associations between birds where two different species hang out together to the benefit of one and to the detriment to neither. These are sometimes referred to as commensal relationships. Here are two examples both involving herons.
We have watched Red-breasted Mergansers feeding in the shallow water chasing fish. When they do this, we often see a host of herons flying in and taking advantage of the small fish that are scared up by the Mergansers. The herons, such as Snowy Egrets, Reddish Egrets, and Little Blue Herons run after the Cormorants and strike out at the darting fish. At times, the herons actually become aggressive to each other as they temporarily defend their area around a Merganser.
In another example, we have noticed Snowy Egrets following White Ibis as the Ibis feed. There is usually only one Snowy per Ibis. The Ibis feeds by repeatedly probing its long down curved bill into the water and feeling for crabs and small fish. The Snowy Egret feeds by looking for small fish and seems to follow the Ibis to get the small fish that its probing stirs up. It is fun to see these pairs, one with its head down feeling the other with its head up looking."
Susan and I observed little blues, snowys,great egrets, ibises all following roseate spoonbills at Ding Darling. What a great sight! Also cattle egrets following cattle or a tractor would be considered commensal feeding!
Now that you know the word to describe the behavior, you will see it everywhere!!!
Enjoy,
Arthur
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