During the fall, I would frequently check on the crabapples to see if anything was eating them. However, back then, they did not appear to be appetizing to anything except coddling moth caterpillars. Finally, now that it is the middle of winter and there is very little else to eat, the crabapples are attracting more interest.
Crabapples, some partially eaten, covered in frost after a freezing fog.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have seen large flocks of birds, including house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus), occupying the crabapple tree and eating the fruits.
A female house finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) picking a crabapple.
The birds are messy eaters and have littered the ground below the tree with bits of fruit. These bits, in turn, have been attracting flightless consumers: rabbits, rodents, or both. Nevertheless, the crabapples are not the top choice for all the animals visiting the yard. When a flock of cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) appeared this weekend, they ignored the crabapples and feasted on the many juniper berries that had also been left uneaten since last summer.
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