A few weeks ago in class I related a story to my students regarding the berries of Cornus florida. After the first frost (or soon after) the juices in the berries of the tree ferment. The birds then flock to the tree and eat them, consequently getting a bit drunk and falling out of the tree. I've seen this happen at my folks' place on the occasional lazy Sunday when I was growing up and it's pretty remarkable.
After class, one of my students asked me where I had heard documentation of this phenomena (a fair question!) I remember hearing something, perhaps on All Things Considered about the dogwood specifically, but I went looking on line. And while I didn't find much specific to Cornus, there is no shortage of reports of birds getting drunk on fermented Hawthorne, Photinia and other plants.
It seems the cedar waxwing has the most tendencies to enjoy a tipple. In 2005, USA Today reported that in Columbia, SC, dozens of the birds died by accidentally flying into glass buildings after eating fermented holly berries. The same species was reported drunk and disorderly in Memphis in 2009, as indicated in an AP report. And, just this past winter, in Romania, dozens of dead starlings were found in town. They were autopsied and it was determined they got drunk on grape 'marc' which is a leftover pulp in the winemaking process.
Of course all this talk about bird death brings to mind the blackbirds that had been found dead in shocking numbers in Arkansas. According to Science News, they died of blunt force. Some speculation exists that a noise disrupted and scared them after dark. They are not good nighttime navigators and thus may have crashed into buildings, trees or each other and then died.
As for the partying I saw on my parents' dogwood, fortunately the tree was quite small so the birds weren't injured when they fell off the branches.
great post! so maybe all those birds in arkansas were drunk?
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