Northwestern Crows eating maggots on salmon carcass

This video helps demonstrate the value of Blow Fly maggots for birds.

Two of these crows are juveniles. So far I have documented 12 different species of birds feeding on these maggots.

Of interest is that almost all of the birds have been recently fledged juveniles.

These maggots are very nutritious and provide these juvenile birds with a good source of food.

Why is this so important?

Most recently fledged birds are fairly inept at obtaining their food.

The slow moving, abundant, nutritious maggots provides an easy to get and important food for these juveniles.

For more information go to the video titled Salmon and Blow Flies in Alaska.