Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Salvia Vandals

My gardening neighbour warned me that crimson rosellas would eat any red flowers or fruit in the garden. But today I discovered that they'll eat white salvias, too:
The photos aren't great because they were taken through the window without the flash fairly early this morning. The rosellas pick the flowers, and eat the nectar from the base. They haven't touched the blue ones, fortunately, even though they have been flowering longer, and are right beside the white ones.

It wouldn't be so bad if they just picked the flowers, but they bite through the stems as well,
killing off future flowers they (and the bees, and the humans) could have enjoyed.

3 comments:

Julierose said...

Oooh too bad---BUT what absolutely beautiful birds...we don't have those here in CT. The closest are cardinals which are no where near as brilliant red....hugs, Julierose

Jeanette said...

So why wouldn't they pick the blue as well, is the nectar not as sweet?

Ivani said...

Beautiful bird. Be glad they found something to eat in your garden. I love birds.