“These images of the Silver-eared Mesia (Leiothrix argentauris tahanensis) were taken against the sun and are not great quality but show interesting behaviour.
“The diet of this bird is not well recorded with no animal prey identified (Wells 2007). The images above (left) shows a grub/larvae being taken. Another animal prey, from the images available it looked like a spider (below left).
“A composite of male-female differentiation from the lower tail-coverts – male above with bright red and female below with tawny/orange is shown in the image above (right).
“This image at the top (right) shows the foraging behaviour for the spider. Note the broken leave in the left claw. It was held there to tease out the insect. Note the lovely display of the tail.”
Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
1,500m ASL, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
Habitat: A public road along primary montane forest
13th January 2012
2 Responses
The Silver-Eared Mesia is popular in aviculture and is known for its omnivorous diet. It will readily eat small insects, mealworms and fruit. An unexplained characteristic of this bird, and the closely related Pekin Robin (Leothrix lutea) is the habit of ingesting seeds. Almost all the seeds they eat are passed undigested through the intestinal tract.
In aviaries, both species are notorious for stealing eggs from other birds.
Wonderful