A Pumpkin A Day

Phainopepla by Kathiesbirds

(acrylic on Bristolboard)

Phainopeplas are insect and berry eating birds found in the Sonoran Desert. The males are black and the females are gray. Both have red eyes. They fly out from a perch to snag insects from the air, or they eat mistletoe berries from the parasitic plants that hang off of other trees. When the phainopeplas go to the bathroom, they excrete mistletoe seeds in their sticky waste onto the branches where they perch. In this way the mistletoe then takes hold and starts to grow on a new tree sending its roots into the new host and sharing the same sap and nutrients. Phainopeplas make a call that sounds like a soft “whoop, whoop.” They are in a family called the silky flycatchers.