Bulbuls feasting on my monarchs

[dancetta]

Now that I have hit the 300 plus mark in releasing monarchs, the neighborhood bulbuls have set up camp on my doorstep and are eating them as fast as I can release them. I've been told to either release them when the bulbuls are sleeping (?) or take them elsewhere. Anyone have any suggestions? I've been a wildbird feeder for over 15 years. Does having a feeder (bulbuls don't eat my seeds, though) make it worse for my butterflies, so I need to stop also feeding the wildbirds.

Help?

[Keith Petrosky]

Birds eat monarchs, I thought monarchs had poison and tasted terrible?

[Farfalla]

Some birds have a higher immunity to the toxins.

[Farfalla]

Dancetta,

It sounds like the bulbuls are there just for the butterflies,since they are not eating your seeds. And since it's not the seed eaters that are after your butterflies...I'd keep the feeder up.

Is there a place near by where you can release the butterflies? Maybe a variety of different locations so that the local bird populations don't wait for you to arrive. They must view your releases as a reliable food source.


I find myself torn in my garden,too.Before rearing Monarchs I would have been facinated by the big fat spider who set up camp in my butterfly bush. I still am facinated......but I DID relocate him.

[psi_chemie]

This may be inappropriate but a 20 guage should work just fine :)

[Farfalla]

LOL!!!

[Pat]

BULBUL [bulbul] , bird, common name for members of the family Pycnonotidae, comprising 119 species of medium-sized, dull-colored passerine birds with short necks and wings, native to Africa and S Asia. Bulbuls are famed as songsters and are popular as cage birds in the Middle East; frequently mentioned in Persian poetry, the word bulbul is often mistranslated "nightingale." Bulbuls range in size from 6 in. (15 cm) to about 12 in. (30.5 cm). They inhabit grasslands and shrubby countrysides, from sea level to 10,000 ft (3,050 m) in the Himalayas. A common Asian species, the red-whiskered bulbul, Pycnonotus jocosus, is easily tamed and is popular as a cage bird. Bulbuls feed mainly on fruits and berries and sometimes do crop damage.

Hi Dancetta, What kind of bulbul do you have there? Are they native to your area? I don't think I've ever seen one.