White eyed vireos were all around Fort Desoto.
My very first red-eyed vireo. His beak was stained red from the berries.
Prothonotary warbler all covered in berry juice.
Another one getting ready to chow on the berries.
He’s going to need a bath after this feast.
Orchard oriole getting a bite.
Another oriole high up in the tree.
Even the squirrels were eating the berries.
The mulberry bush area at Fort Desoto was a fly-in fast food place in mid April for birds migrating north. I had never even heard of a mulberry until last year when I kept hearing about the bird traffic at the mulberry bushes at Fort Desoto. I’ve never eaten one but they look like they would taste like a raspberry or blackberry. One interesting thing I read about them on Wikipedia is that some North American cities have banned the planting of mulberries because of the large amounts of pollen they produce, posing a potential health hazard for some pollen allergy sufferers. No wonder I kept coming home with nose bleeds after spending hours walking around the bushes.
This was the 2nd weekend I had spent at the park looking for little birds. This day I was able to see my first red-eyed vireo. I was getting bird nerd neck pain from staring up in the trees for hours at time. That’s okay, small price to pay for seeing these beautiful fun birds. I can spend the rest of the summer resting on a float in the gulf recouping as the dolphins and manatees swim by (all while keeping an eye out for stingrays and sharks).
Check out more birds at Paying Ready Attention for 
Great sequence!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.
Aww they look so cute eating their berries.
A terrific series of these cute berry eaters!
Amazing captures.
Liz (yacb)
very, very cool! lots of birds i don’t see here.
Love your summer plans ;>)….. cool to see a red-beaked red eyed vireo! I really hope to get to Ft DeSoto next april…but think I’ll keep the info about the pollen from my husband as tends to be an allergy sufferer and am not sure he’d think the birds were worth it. (But I would!)
Super set of photos! A friend of mine saw a white-eyed vireo in Toronto last week. I didn’t know they traveled so far north.
I love your photos of the birds covered in berry juice. So cute.
I’m still waiting for the flock of waxwings who visit our ornamental crababpple tree in the spring. Deer come into our open front yard and eat all the fruit off the lower branches when there’s snow on the ground, but they can’t reach the high branches, even when they stand on their hind legs. So, by the time the waxwings arrive, the fruit is fermented, and it is so funny to watch them in the tree and on the ground! I’ve never seen one fall and hurt itself yet. Wings do help.
K
A great series of beautiful birds – and the mulberry juice over them looks so cute. I was told just the other day that someone has now produced a white mulberry so the juice doesn’t stain everything! Wonder if the birds would still find it.
Awesome collection of these berry-eating beauties!
fabulous; great bird eating mulberries by the looks of it; great photo opportunity while they had a feast (so did you with your camera)
Great photos. Well done!
Gorgeous shots of the warblers and the vireos. The squirrel is cute too.
wow! you’ve got some crystal clear photos of these beautiful birds. x
Fantastic. Love the warbler covered in juice.