Painted redstarts (Myioborus pictus) attack larger prey when using flush-pursue strategy

Introduction: Prey escape reaction in insects is an antipredatory adaptation that is mediated by prey neural escape circuits with specific sensory properties. Methods: Certain insectivorous birds, flush-pursuers, exploit this visual sensitivity by employing conspicuous pivoting movements of spread tail and wings to flush the prey into the air where it is available for chase in aerial pursuits. Although it is known that this strategy increases the number of insects attacked, no information has been published on the size distribution of arthropods attacked using flush-pursue strategy vs. traditional gleaning and pecking off substrate strategy. Results: Based on one season of observational data of foraging redstarts (Myioborus pictus) we show that prey items that were flushed and chased were on average larger than prey pecked off of substrates. Conclusion: This may be one of the benefits from flush-pursue foraging – a strategy that is probably costly in terms of energy demands.