Show LOVES THE ORCHARD kingbirds King birds hostility to hawks and crows Is proverbial it la Is true flycatcher and takes on wing large part of its ita feed picks up many insects from trees and weeds prepared by the united states department of agriculture the well known eastern kingbird is essentially a lover of the orchard though groves and the edge of forests A wore probably its original habitat it breeds in the states east of the rocky mountains ana less commonly con in the great basin and on the pacific coast its hostility to hawks and crows is proverbial and for this reason a family of kingbird king birds Is a desirable adjunct to lo a poultry yard on ond one occasion in the knowledge of the writer a hawk which attacked a brood of young turkeys was pounced upon and so severely buffeted by a pair of kingbirds king birds whose nest was near by that the would be ba robber was glad to escape without aitho ut his prey songbirds Song birds that nest near the kingbird are similarly protected the kingbird Is largely insectivorous it Is a true flycatcher and takes on the wing a large part of its food it does not however confine itself to this method of hunting but picks up somo some insects from trees and weeds and even des rinds to tho the ground in search of myrla myria pods or thousand legs the chief complaint complain t against the species by both professional beekeepers bee keepers and others has been that it preys largely upon hone honeybees Y ono one bee raiser in iowa suspecting the kingbirds king birds of 0 feeding upon his bees shot a number near his hives but bat when the stomachs of the birds were examined by an expert entomologist tom not a trace of honeybees could be found an examination of stomachs collected in various parts of the country was made by the biological survey but only 22 were found to contain tea rea kingbird mains of honeybees in these 22 stomachs there were in all 61 honeybees of which 51 were drones 8 were certainly workers and the remaining two were too badly broken to be further identified the insects that constitute the g great reat bulk of tho the food are noxious species largely beetles may alay beetles click beetles the larvae of which are known as weevils we evils which proy prey upon fruit and grain and a host of others wasps wild bees and ants are conspicuous el elements emerAs of the food tar far but outnumbering numbering the hive bees during summer bummer many grasshoppers and crickets as well as leaf hoppers and other bugs also are eaten in the t stomachs examined were a number of robber flies insects which prey largely upon other insects especially honeybees and which are know to commit in this way extensive depredations it Is thus evident that the kingbird by destroying these flies actually does good work for the apiarist the 26 robber flies found in the stomachs may be considered more than an equivalent for the eight worker honeybees already mentioned A few caterpillars are eaten mostly belonging to the group commonly known as cut worms all the species of which are harmful about 11 per cent of the food consists of small catl native e fruits comprising some thirty common species of the roadsides and thickets as dogwood berries elderberries elder berries and wild grapes tho the kingbird is not reported as eating cultivated fruit to an injurious extent and it Is very doubtful it If this is ever the case lu the western states the arkansas kingbird Is not so domestic in its habits as its eastern relative preferring to live among scattering oaks on lonely lone hillsides hill sides rather than in orchards about buildings the work it does however in the destruction of noxious insects fully equals that of any member of its family like other flycatchers it subsists mostly upon insects taken in midair though it eats eata a number of grasshoppers probably taken from the ground the bulk of its food consists of beetles bugs wasps and wild bees like its eastern representative it has been accused of feeding to an injurious extent upon tho the honeybee in an examination of 62 stomachs of this bird great care was ae taken to identity identify every insect or fragment that bacany had any resemblance i to a honeybee as a result 30 honeybees were identified of which 29 were males or drones and one a worker these were contained in four stomachs 4 and were the sole contents of three in the fourth they constituted 99 per cent of the food it is evident that the bee eating habit is only occa elonar and accidental rather thin babl habitual f and it la is also alco evident that it this ratio of drones to workers were maintained the b would bo be ot of mon benefit than man harm to the apiary the cassin kingbird has a more southerly range than the Arka arkansas lisas flycatcher examination ot of a number of stomachs shows that thai its food habits are stin similar flar to those of 0 others of the ho group three points seem to bo be clearly es in regard to the food of tho the kingbirds king birds 1 1 that about 90 per cent consists of insects mostly injurious species 2 that the alleged habit of preying upon honeybees is much lesi prevalent than tins has been supposed and probably does not result in any great damage arid and 3 that tho the food consists almost entirely ot of wild fruits which have no economic value all of the kingbirds king birds are of tho greatest importance to the farmer and fruit grower as they destroy vat vast numbers of harmful insects and do no appreciable damage to any product of cultivation |