This post was contributed by Stephen Klotz, co-author of a recent paper in The Wilson Journal of Ornithology on Western Kingbirds preying on honeybees.

Justin Schmidt called me one morning and asked me to make a painting illustrating the “experimental setup” outside his office-cum-insectarium located in his home. A Western Kingbird was capturing honeybees in flight whenever they left a paper-mache beehive he had invented and manufactured.  He had seeded the hive with the lactic and citric acid, which attract bees, and hung it on a mesquite branch alongside a picture window. Several weeks later, a swarm had settled in. Justin could stand at the window in his office and observe the traffic from the hive once it became occupied. (Wild honeybees in Arizona below the Grand Canyon, incidentally, are all Africanized “killer bees,” and some swarms are prodigious in size.) Soon a Western Kingbird began perching on an adjacent mesquite branch and spent the day leisurely feeding on honeybees, returning for several weeks. Justin, whose long career included studying honeybees, quickly spotted that the bird was feeding exclusively on drones. Justin and the bird recognized the drones by their slower flight and very large heads and eyes.

This post was contributed by Anthony Gaston, co-author of a recent paper in The Wilson Journal of Ornithology on population change and nest tree longevity of a small-island population of Red-breasted Sapsuckers.

Woodpeckers are very distinctive birds. Evolution took a lot of trouble to organize a bird that climbs tree trunks and drills holes in wood, and then, having made one such bird, it went on to make 239 different species, 23 of which live in North America. They all share the vital characteristics of having a stiff tail to lean back on and a strong, sharp bill for hacking into trees. Other birds have tried to reach the same niche—nuthatches, creepers, woodcreepers—but none has developed the same skill at woodworking. Watching a big woodpecker hacking at an electrical power pole, spraying large flakes of wood in all directions, is a truly awesome sight and probably a very annoying one for anyone working on the line.