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The seed cones are round, 3 to 5 mm (1 ⁄ 8 to 3 ⁄ 16 in) long, and soft, pulpy and berry-like, green at first, maturing purple about 8 months after pollination. They contain one or two seeds , which are dispersed when birds eat the cones and pass the seeds in their droppings.
Juniper berries are actually modified conifer cones.. A juniper berry is the female seed cone produced by the various species of junipers.It is not a true berry but a cone with unusually fleshy and merged scales called a galbulus, which gives it a berry-like appearance.
Seeds are dispersed by a variety of mammals and birds. Mammals include jackrabbits (mostly the black-tailed jackrabbit Lepus californicus spp.) rodents and to a lesser extent by coyotes (Canis latrans). [6] Most notable among the birds that disperse juniper berries is the Townsend's solitaire (Myadestes townsendi). [7]
The juniper titmouse eats insects and spiders, sometimes seen catching insects in mid air. It also eats berries, acorns, and some seeds, sometimes hammering seeds against branches to open them. The bird forages on foliage, twigs, branches, trunks, and occasionally on the ground. Strong legs and feet allows it to hang upside down to forage.
Most mistletoe seeds are spread by birds who eat the 'seeds' (in actuality drupes). Of the many bird species that feed on them, the mistle thrush is the best-known in Europe, the phainopepla in southwestern North America, and Dicaeum flowerpeckers in Asia and Australia. Depending on the species of mistletoe and the species of bird, the seeds ...
The seed cones are berry-like, green ripening in 18 months to orange-red with a variable pink waxy coating; they are spherical, 7–12 mm (1 ⁄ 4 – 1 ⁄ 2 in) diameter, and have three or six fused scales in 1–2 whorls, three of the scales with a single seed. The seeds are dispersed when birds eat the cones, digesting the fleshy scales and ...
Oak titmice eat insects and spiders, and are sometimes seen catching insects in mid air. They will also take berries, acorns, and some seeds. This species forages on foliage, twigs, branches, trunks, and occasionally on ground, sometimes hanging upside down to forage, and hammering seeds against branches to open them.
Rowan berries are a favourite food, and are eaten whenever available. [15] Waxwings can eat huge numbers of berries, each bird sometimes consuming several hundred a day, more than double its own weight. One individual was recorded as eating between 600 and 1,000 cotoneaster berries in six hours, and defecating every four minutes. [12]