- This video shows a couple of ways that American Dippers forage for aquatic insects in streams.
- Sometimes they will swim out over a pool and dive, using their wings, and grab caddisfly larvae at the bottom of the pool.
- Since most of these larvae have cases made out of stones or wood the dipper must get rid of the case.
- You can see how it does this in the video. It grabs the caddisfly by the head and shakes it until the case falls off. Then it eats it.
- Another method of finding aquatic insects is to turn over stones in the stream and grab the insects living under them.
- They also can grasp the substrate with their very strong feet and eat the insects that may be living on top of the stones.
- To learn more about these fascinating birds look at Southeast’s Aquatic Songbird (American Dipper) by Bob Armstrong and Marge Hermans
Songbird Feeds Underwater from Bob Armstrong on Vimeo.