Common Iora feeding on grub

posted in: Feeding-invertebrates | 1

“On 26th February 2018, I observed a male Common Iora (Aegithina tiphia) feeding in a tree at Tampines Eco Green. The branches had several rufous-coloured, triangular protrusions on them. The bird plucked one of the protrusions, grasped it with its left claw, turned it upside down to extract a grub with its beak (below).

IoraC-grub [ThongChowNgian]

“The photo below shows the bird successfully extracting the grub with its beak. In this picture, it also shows clearly the base of the protrusion which is shaped like a flower with 4 petals.

IoraC-grub [ThongChowNgian]

“The photo below is a cropped photo of the above, showing a larger image of the grub. The bird was able to extract 2 grubs from that single triangular protrusion.

IoraC-grub [ThongChowNgian]

Thong Chow Ngian
Singapore
3rd March 2018

Note: Anyone able to identify the grub, please inform via “comment.” Thanks.

  1. Yuchen

    I suspect the grubs might be some kind of moth caterpillar – it’s got proper legs which rules out maggots, while I’m not aware of beetle larvae making these ‘tents’ – its usually the moths…

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