#scrub tanager

[spinus-pinus]

Scrub Tanager Stilpnia vitriolina

7/12/2024 Caldas, Colombia

brewmaster via iNaturalist, CC-BY-NC

[birdstudies]

November 24, 2024 - Gray-winged Inca-Finch (Incaspiza ortizi) Found in parts of northwestern Peru, these tanagers live in high altitude desert scrub. They eat seeds and other plant foods, as well as insects, foraging in dense vegetation on or near the ground, alone or in pairs. Little is known about their nesting behavior though their breeding season probably starts in May and nestlings and juveniles have been observed from June to September.

[cowboycatss]

drop the top ten birds list now 💕💕🔫

WELLL IF YOU'RE INSISTING! 10 cool birds in no particular order except the first one who is my favorite animal ever on this planet

BEARDED VULTURE!!!! if i dont see one of these in person someday i just simply wont die. i cant leave this earth without seeing miss lammergeier first

turkey vulture

osprey

black phoebe

eurasian collared-dove

northern cardinal

blue-grey tanager

dark-eyed junco

hoatzin

california scrub-jay

[haveyouseenthisbirdpoll]

List of Birds organized by Order + locations:

Accipitriformes:

Bearded vulture

California condor

Cooper's hawk

Osprey

Red-shouldered hawk

Steller's sea eagle

Anseriformes:

Bar-headed goose

Barnacle goose

Black swan

Common merganser

Red-breasted goose

Snow goose

Trumpeter swan

Apodiformes:

Common swift

Ruby-throated hummingbird

Bucerotiformes:

Eurasian hoopoe

Cariamiformes:

Red-legged seriema

Casuariiformes:

Emu

Southern cassowary

Cathartiformes:

Black vulture

Turkey vulture

Charadriiformes:

American oystercatcher

Atlantic puffin

Black-headed gull

Black skimmer

Black-tailed godwit

European herring gull

Killdeer

Northern lapwing

Ruddy turnstone

Western sandpiper

Ciconiiformes:

White stork

Columbiformes:

Common wood pigeon

Eurasian collared dove

Luzon bleeding-heart

Nicobar pigeon

Stock dove

Victoria crowned pigeon

Coraciiformes:

Blue-capped kingfisher

Common kingfisher

Cuculiformes:

Asian koel

Greater roadrunner

Yellow-billed cuckoo

Eurypygiformes:

Kagu

Falconiformes:

American kestrel

Common kestrel

Galliformes:

Indian peafowl

Palawan peacock-pheasant

Plain chachalaca

Scaled quail

Western capercaillie

Gaviiformes:

Common loon

Gruiformes:

American coot

Australasian swamphen/pūkeko

Blue crane

Common moorhen

Sandhill crane

Sora

Whooping crane

Passeriformes:

American bushtit

American robin

Australian raven

Baltimore oriole

Barn swallow

Black-billed magpie

Black-capped chickadee

Black-headed grosbeak

Black-throated sparrow

Blue-headed vireo

Blue jay

Bluethroat

Brown thrasher

California scrub jay

California towhee

Canada warbler

Canyon wren

Cave swallow

Cedar waxwing

Chestnut-backed chickadee

Common blackbird

Common chlorospingus

Common raven

Eastern wood pewee

Eurasian blue tit

Eurasian bullfinch

Eurasian golden oriole

Eurasian jay

Eurasian magpie

European robin

Goldcrest

Great-tailed grackle

Great tit

Hooded crow

House sparrow

Indigo bunting

Jamaican crow

Kirtland's warbler

LeConte's sparrow

Long-tailed tit

Mexican jay

Painted bunting

Phainopepla

Pine siskin

Pin-tailed whydah

Pinyon jay

Pygmy nuthatch

Red winged blackbird

Rook

Saltmarsh sparrow

Satin bowerbird

Spotted towhee

Steller's jay

Tufted titmouse

Wallcreeper

Warbling vireo

Western tanager

White-breasted nuthatch

White-throated dipper

White-throated magpie-jay

Yellow-rumped warbler

Pelecaniformes:

Black-crowned night heron

Brown pelican

Great blue heron

Great egret

Great white pelican

Least bittern

Roseate spoonbill

Shoebill stork

Snowy egret

Phoenicopteriformes:

American flamingo

Chilean flamingo

Piciformes:

Acorn woodpecker

Clark's nutcracker

Great spotted woodpecker

Lesser spotted woodpecker

Lewis's woodpecker

Northern flicker

Pileated woodpecker

Red-bellied woodpecker

Red-headed woodpecker

Podargiformes:

Tawny frogmouth

Podicipediformes:

Pied-billed grebe

Procellariiformes:

Wilson's storm-petrel

Psittaciformes:

Australian king parrot

Chestnut-fronted macaw

Citron-crested cockatoo

Cockatiel

Galah

Gang-gang cockatoo

Pacific parrotlet

Red-masked parakeet

Rose-ringed parakeet

Sulphur-crested cockatoo

Strigiformes:

Barn owl

Barred owl

Burrowing owl

Eurasian eagle-owl

Suliformes:

Anhinga

Blue-footed booby

Double-crested cormorant

Trogoniformes:

Elegant trogon

Locations:

Africa

America

Antarctica

Asia

Australia

Eurasia

Europe

Oceania

[naturecoaster]

Hernando Audubon Meeting, Thursday, April 24: Managing Florida’s Wild Places: Creating Habitat for Northern Bobwhite (Quail), with Speaker Steve Brinkley. Steve will be talking about the successful management of public lands for species like the Northern Bobwhite (Quail), including the use of prescribed burns. He spent seven years studying Northern Bobwhite at Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area (WMA) and has worked for 12 years as a Wildlife Biologist/Land Manager in the WMA system. Currently, he is a District Biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) in the Wildlife and Habitat Management Section, overseeing numerous FWC areas. The meeting will start at 7 p.m. (until 9 p.m.) at Brooksville Woman’s Club, 131 S. Main Street, Brooksville. Free, all are welcome. Make reservations here: https://www.mobilize.us/audubon-chapters/event/698882/ For information, contact Tom: tomstclair8@gmail.com or 904-303-0919. Hernando Audubon birding trip to see Florida Scrub-Jays at Greenway Triangle, Ocala, Thursday, April 3, 8 to 11 a.m. We will have an opportunity to observe management techniques used to maintain habitat for Florida Scrub-Jays. These birds are unusual in that the young raised in previous years remain with their parents to help tend to future generations. The trip size is limited, so please make reservations with Ken: klarsson55@gmail.com or 352-346-4132. Hernando County Audubon April 2025 Activity Schedule Hernando Audubon birding trip to Croom Tract of Withlacoochee State Forest, Saturday, April 5, 6:45 to 9 a.m. Meet on the south side of Croom Road (CR-480) at the horse corral at the intersection with Forest Road 7. This is 7 miles east of US-41. Find Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Bachman’s Sparrow, and other resident forest birds and look for early spring migrants. Make reservations here: https://www.mobilize.us/audubon-chapters/event/665945/ For more information, contact Bev: bevalhansen@gmail.com or 352-686-0460. Hernando Audubon birding and butterfly trip to Weekiwachee Preserve North Loop, Saturday, April 12, 8 to 11 a.m. April is a prime time to view butterflies. Meet in the parking lot near the playground equipment at Linda Pedersen Park at Jenkins Creek, 6300 Shoal Line Blvd. (CR 595), in Spring Hill. We’ll explore trails in the northern section of the preserve looking for both migrant and resident birds as well as butterflies that should be flying in good numbers at this time of year. We’ll walk about two miles on forest trails, but participants can cut it short if desired. There are restrooms and drinking water in the park. Make reservations here:https://www.mobilize.us/audubon-chapters/event/666262/ For more information, contact Clay: cjbird@bellsouth.net or 352-592-4949. Hernando Audubon birding trip to Big Pine Tract, Saturday, April 19, 8 a.m. The entrance to the Big Pine Tract is 1 mile north of where Old Crystal River Road intersects with U.S. 41, just north of Brooksville at 12060 Old Crystal River Road. Meet in the parking lot, which is on the east side of the road. We will walk the upland trail through the longleaf pine habitat. The trail eventually leads down to the lowlands and into a lovely oak hammock. There is a forty-foot change in elevation making for a variety of vegetation and birds. Expect to see many woodpeckers, hawks, Great Crested Flycatchers, Summer Tanager, and other birds. The walk is about 2 miles. There is a restroom, but no drinking water. Make reservations here: https://www.mobilize.us/audubon-chapters/event/666296/ For more information, contact Bev: bevalhansen@gmail.com or 352-686-0460. Hernando Audubon Beginning Birding, Friday, April 25, 8 to 11 a.m. Meet on the deck behind the building at Chinsegut Conservation Center, 23212 Lake Lindsey Road, Brooksville. Learn to identify birds at feeders and during a short walk. There will be binoculars available for use. Make reservations here: https://www.mobilize.us/audubon-chapters/event/660432/ For information, contact Linda: lindalark85@gmail.com or text 352-428-2629. Hernando Audubon Kayak Trip on Chassahowitzka River, Wednesday, April 30. Meet at 8:00 a.m. at the parking lot of the Chassahowitzka River Campground near the boat launch. This is located south of Homosassa Springs and west of U. S. 19 at 8600 W. Miss Maggie Drive, in Citrus County. We will kayak the Chassahowitzka River for approximately two hours and expect to see various herons, egrets as well as Limpkins and nesting Ospreys. We hope to see migrating birds as they fly north to their breeding grounds. If lucky, we may also see manatees and river otters, which are always a highlight of this trip. This outing is limited to experienced kayakers who can bring their kayaks to the river. Participation on this trip is limited, so please reserve a spot with Tom: tomstclair8@gmail.com or 904-303-0919. Read the full article

[jacks-tracks]

March 2025

Roca Blanca

Roca blanca, as detailed in previous posts. Upcoast from Puerto, it,s 1 hour on the 2 lane rocket road. I call it that because the vans that run from Puerto to Rio Grande seem to fly. 60 pesos, approx 1 hour. Bad music blares, whats worse than rap in Spanish, off key?The drivers believe that if you tailgate the lead vehicle will speed up. Not true , but it puts them in a better position to make flying passes on blind corners The highway is marked with painted distance indicators(ie. 120 to Puerto). Misread by van drivers to mean the speed limit is 120, they try. Perhaps the sooner they get to the destination, the sooner they can have drinks before returning. Driving with one hand is traditional, especially while gabbing on the radio phone to other distracted van drivers. Hands come right off the wheel to wave at drivers from the same company going in the opposite direction. I swear little wings slid out from the side panels for lift! Anyway, flag stops are sudden, accelerating to 100 fun, and chickens beware. Only topes save the day, and there,s lots of them, usually paved, sometimes homemade from dirt, or best of all, a row of cannonballs across traffic. These seem to work best, nearly a full stop. Then it,s time to accelerate full blast to the next tope(100 yards). Having survived all this, pay 60 pesos on alighting, limp into the shade.

it,s a stroll through Cacalote town, flat, divided street, paved to the city limits, where it becomes dirt. Lots of shops selling the same stuff, a tortilla shop, laundry, pool hall, plaza, school, and flowers on walls. The tiny carnival rides aare still rusting on the side street, apparently unused till weekends. At 9 am the heat has yet to rise, and there,s patches of shade from roadside trees. Flat land, cow pastures, goats, donkeys, calves, brahma cattle, nervous chickens, and occasional tropical birds in the larger trees.A brilliant red bird in the mango was perhaps a tanager. Kids cruise by on 1 speed bikes, moms on scooters pack on 2 kids, groceries, and the occasional dog. Everybody is curious(why are these gringos walking!/), but friendly. Calling out Buenos Dias inevitably gets a smile and wave. One half mile from the beach ,the thunder of the surf rolls through the air. A masssive lagoon is hidden by mangrove swamps, and while there is one patch of open water, dotted with tiny fish, and decorated by a Crocodillo sign, no crocs are in evidence. They probably lurk deeper in the swamp, and only eat dogs, right?

Finally come some rental shacks roadside, plank walls, flimsy doors and mosquitoes for free. Rental prices are stupid, 1000 pesos per night. Perhaps for the ambience? None!! There a re now a couple of upscale mini hotels, empty. Then comes the first of the beach front palalpa restarants(sp?) Lulu and Jose Galvan are the longest established, super friendly, very good cook, specializing in fish, fresh caught. Now there,s a big tin roofed palapa with plastic chairs and tables, a few hammocks, and a wide open view of the beach stretching east forever, and west to the rocky point and usually swimmable beach in front of the iguanarium. Yes they have an iguana rearing facility, with jumbo adults, and 100,s of babys in tall net cages. They get fed stale lettuce by the box full.. There are 10 other palapas, funky, unused except on weekends and crammed to overflowing at Christmas and Easter. The swamp backs onto these palapas.

Huge surf boomed in the last time I was there, making the main beach unusable, and the swim beach dangerous. Usually the swim beach can be used as it,s in a hook. Instead I walked into the interior on a small dirt road between the swamp mangroves and the tall sand banks that cut off the beaches. Barb wire fences isolate the cactus and scrub from the path and I kept one eye on the scrub for venemous critters, and the other eye on the swamp side for crocs, Saw none, but it was the heat of the day by 10 am. 1 mile along, a cactus boardered trail, up over the dunes to a collapsing palapa(shade!) with a nice view over another pocket beach. Waves of heat mixed with the sea breeze. Another mile and i saw a huge rock pile, sandstone all weathered into fantastic shapes. There was house down the road, but i ducked under the wire onto another beach. More miles of empty sand, big waves, and a gringo palace in the distance. Underground cables carry power all along this empty road. Another palapa, welcome shade and a breeze off the ocean made a good final stop. Cormorants ducked throught the surf, and a curlew(?) with a skinny curved beak as long as it,s legs probed the backwash.

Returning always seems shorter, and i made my way back. At the swim beach a full wetsuited diver had speared 5 big fish. I went to the restaurant to join my companions for lunch. Huge portion of fish with fries. Pricey at 380 pesos, but I,m paying for the ambience, and a hammock. Jose is building 4 cement palapas right beside the main building. Seems he pissed off the locals, and someone burned down his original shacks. Mysterious are the ways of local politics in Mexico. Matt drove Lorrine and I out to the road, saving us a very hot walk, and another rocket driver flew us back to Puerto.

So, Roca Blanca is the perfect place to feel the old Mexico of my youth, empty beaches, golden sand, palapa eaterys, and peaceful scenery. A long way to go, but well worth it.

[saladban]

"Small, compact gray-and-white tanager. Found in high-elevation elfin forest and humid scrub around the treeline. Brownish gray above, paler white and gray below; note the light cream-colored eye. Pairs and small groups often join mixed-species flocks with other tanagers."

-eBird

Conservation Status: LC

[2999/11080] Drab hemispingus - Pseudospingus xanthophthalmus

Order: Passeriformes Suborder: Passeri Superfamily: Emberizoidea Family: Thraupidae (tanagers)

Photo credit: Miguel Lezama via Macaulay Library

[lowcountry-gothic]

Scrub tanager, one of the less flamboyant of the Colombian forest tanagers, but still very beautiful. Photo by Ignacio Yúfera.

[stephanocardona]

Scrub Tanager by djlparent99

[wingedjewels]

Tangara vitriolina - Scrub Tanager – Tangara rastrojera. by Santiago Ramos Via Flickr: Tangara Tupí name Tangara dancer, for the tanagers and other bright finch-like birds. vitriolina L. vitreolus of glass (vitrum glass).

[spacefinch]

Here's some bird facts for you!

Many songbird species use the stars to navigate while migrating.

Falcons are more closely related to parrots than hawks.

A pileated woodpecker can peck 16 times a second.

The red-legged and black-legged seriemas are the closest living relatives of the "terror birds" of prehistoric times.

The Canada Jay nests during the cold boreal winter, rather than the spring and summer.

Crows can recognize people's faces and remember whether they are friendly or a threat.

Flamingos get their pink coloring from the carotenoid pigments in the brine shrimp that they eat.

Woodcocks can bend the tips of their beaks. This is called "distal rhyncokinesis."

Dippers (of which there are five species) are the only songbirds that can swim. The American dipper, also called the water ouzel, was naturalist John Muir's favorite bird.

The song "Blackbird" by the Beatles uses actual sound recordings of the Eurasian blackbird's song.

Some bird species (such as falcons and shrikes) have notches in their bills called "tomial teeth," usually used for killing prey.

The heaviest wild bird in North America is the trumpeter swan.

Loons have solid bones (rather than hollow bones with struts) in order to make them better divers. (Side note: when people say birds have hollow bones, it doesn't mean their bones are just empty tubes. Bird bones are very light, but very strong.)

Some species of birds (Florida scrub-jays, fairy wrens, golden-hooded tanagers, and others) have "nest helpers" during the breeding season. These are juvenile birds from earlier broods that help raise their younger siblings.

I just want people to know there are other asexual love languages besides expressing a desire to eat cake. Show me pictures of cool trees. Your dice, rock, and marble collections. Your most mindblowing mushroom facts.

[birdstudies]

February 26, 2024 - Black-backed Bush Tanager or Black-backed Bush-finch (Urothraupis stolzmanni) Found on the eastern slope of the Andes in Colombia and Ecuador, these tanagers live in forests and scrub near tree line. They feed on insects and fruits, foraging in small groups, often with mixed-species flocks, picking their prey from vegetation while perched. Nothing is known about their breeding behavior.

[floridensis]

when i was like 9-10 i had a guide to florida birds that i would just look at constantly. i would take it with me everywhere. i still have it

i have a mental list of a bunch of birds i liked and formed a vaguely parasocial relationship with but hadnt to my knowledge seen in my one decade of life but really wanted to. the mental list has never left me and i get so excited every time i see something on the Mental List that i havent seen before

the birds:

common loon [i found a dead one once does that count]

pied billed grebe ✅

white-tailed tropicbird

northern gannet

american white pelican

magnificent frigatebird ✅

american bittern

least bittern

snowy egret ✅

little blue heron ✅

reddish egret

glossy ibis ✅

roseate spoonbill ✅

wood stork ✅

fulvous whistling duck

wood duck ✅

bufflehead

hooded merganser ✅

ruddy duck ✅

crested caracara

american kestrel ✅

northern bobwhite

purple gallinule ✅

black necked stilt ✅

black skimmer

white-crowned pigeon ✅

common ground dove ✅

downy woodpecker ✅

pileated woodpecker ✅

loggerhead shrike ✅

florida scrub-jay [i apparently saw them as a child but barely remember]

cedar waxwing ✅

blackburnian warbler

black and white warbler ✅

ovenbird ✅

summer tanager

scarlet tanager

rose-breasted grosbeak

indigo bunting

painted bunting

bobolink

red winged blackbird ✅

scarlet ibis

dovekie

.

dovekie

dovekie

[anonsally]

Days 0-1 of LA vacation

With bonus birdwatching content!

Yesterday I was sad that Poppet didn’t show up to breakfast, so I didn’t get to say goodbye to him before we left town. We won’t be back until the day after his Liberation Day. :(

Anyway--we finished packing (I managed to take an online ballet class too) and set off. The flight was full, and it felt a little like people have forgotten how to travel and gone somewhat feral. There were people ignoring the “please stow your laptops for landing” and others not letting the people in rows in front of them de-plane first. Plus, the guy behind me wasn’t wearing his mask properly (I heard a flight attendant ask him to put it over his nose, and I later heard him snacking on something crunchy)--and I heard him coughing just before takeoff. So... that was a bit nerve-wracking. And LAX is a total mess right now with construction going on, and we had to take a long bus-shuttle ride to the taxi/rideshare stand. 

But from then on it went smoothly. We’re staying not too far from the airport, and we like the place. We ended up walking over a mile and a half to a fancy vegan gluten-free Japanese restaurant (Shojin) for dinner. It was a splurge, but the food was sublime, as was my mocktail. 

Today, Wife wasn’t ready to go until about 45 minutes after our intended departure time, but it turned out not to be a problem. My aunt and uncle took us to the Huntington botanical gardens, which are huge and spectacular. We only saw a small fraction of it, actually. There were some beautiful trees and flowers, and also ponds with koi. We had a nice lunch at one of the cafes and wandered around. I particularly enjoyed the bonsai garden! 

There were also some birds; I had brought my little binoculars but not my good ones. @lies, I have a few questions for you, as usual!

I was wandering around with 3 other people and admiring the whole place and enjoying the experience, not just strictly birdwatching. I could hear a lot of birdsong but only saw/identified a few birds. Do I count this as “traveling” or “incidental”? I had the checklist running the whole time, but much of that time was not really spent birdwatching, so I lean toward incidental.

I saw a weird duck! But I don’t know if it was domestic or hybrid. Seemed clear that it was part-mallard, but the head had more of a blue-ish tinge, it had a chest patch that was black with white speckles, and its back/wings (it was swimming) were cinnamon. Should I just report it as “duck sp.” with a description? Diligent googling seems to have turned up a domestic breed called Duclair which is close to what I saw but not exactly the same. If there had been big white patches I would’ve assumed it was domestic, but this didn’t have white on the breast, it had black with white spots. (I really wish I had taken a photo. Maybe my uncle did?)

I also saw Canada geese, mallards, a band-tailed pigeon flying past (I think), an unidentified raptor (could’ve been red-shouldered hawk, but I didn’t get a good enough look to be sure), a black phoebe, a Steller’s jay, 2 California scrub jays, a Bewick’s wren singing, at least 6 white-crowned sparrows, and a house finch. Merlin tells me I heard more house finches and a Hutton’s vireo, but it also suggested at various points a summer tanager (which seems unlikely) and a California thrasher, and I’m not sure how many of those suggestions to believe about birds I didn’t manage to spot.

Anyway, it was very hot! But the air was remarkably clear--we could see the mountains--and we felt it was lucky we had gone on such a nice day. 

After that, we had a very talkative taxi driver take us back to the town where we are staying (through rush hour traffic) and got dropped off at the health food store where we picked up some groceries for the weekend.

Tomorrow’s plans are still unclear. But it is nice to be away, even if this wouldn’t have been my top choice of destination. (We are here for a party on Saturday.)

[petsgrief]

usually, it’s judd who’d be in blue’s place right now; nose barely grazing the nape of their neck, nosing at the coloured hair there, savoring their warmth as he closed in ever so slowly, barely touching him at all until his forehead rests atop his right shoulder – could it be the same for blue? to feel the whole of his body heave a sigh at the mere sound of him, like he’s able to breathe at last, unaware he’d been holding in so much all day long? judd beams at the thought, keeps an urge to sway them together at bay and only peeks over his shoulder and speaking over the running faucet and the few dishes on the sink he scrubs away eagerly to take some load off his beloved housemate. “hey, it’s not too bad. I got to lead my first group today.” too perky for the mardy bum behind him, judd is happy to update. “went great. went fantastic, actually. warblers, chickadees, peckers, lots of thrushes flying in, fuckin’ tanagers, man — whole group went wild, it’s like beyonce stepped in. oh, and the best of all – ” because he couldn't help but be corny, partly a move by his subconscious when he’s rubbing it in, the other part the simple reminders of his baby blue even that far into where they usually wouldn’t be. “blue jays. not a lot, but a solid few. it’s like you were there all long....” judd trails off dramatically, he so wishes that were the case.

closed for @vanisheveryday

As the days carried on, Blue grew more and more weary - drained and bone heavy. The only correlation with the continuation of time and his heart calcifying to stone was the amount of time they spent without Judd, how far apart they were. Which wasn't that much of a distance at all - Judd hadn't travelled to Appalachia and decided to become a ranger amongst their mountains. If anything, Blue could go on a casual hike and would probably be able to find him within an hour. But, actually, he couldn't, because he was tired. Missing Judd was a physical thing - so finally seeing him, practically at home in their kitchen after the world's longest day at work, was a soothing balm over a fresh, shiny burn. Blue didn't even have it in them to pretend that they'd been nervous - they'd know Judd just from the way they breathed. Or blinked. "Fuckin' - thank god." They mumbled, resting their forehead on Judd's back as he continued to putz around the sink, arms looping around to hug at their torso. "I hate your job."

[agapornithinae]

Masked cardinal ~ Paroaria nigrogenis

The masked cardinal is a species in the tanager family, Thraupidae and is not very closely related to the cardinals proper, Cardinalidae. It’s range covers Venezuela, Trinidad and north-eastern Columbia.

Previously, the masked cardinal was considered conspecific with the red-capped cardinal, Paroaria gularis, from which it differs by the black ear-coverts and the red,not black, lower throat and upper chest. As the two species’ ranges do not cross and Paroaria nigrogenis does not readily hybridise with Paroaria gularis, they were classified as separate species.

The masked cardinal is often found in groups of both adults and juveniles near water in riverine forests, scrub, and savanna, mostly in lowlands. In thse groups the birds have been observed to feed on a mix of seeds, vegetable matter, fruit and insects.