2025/05/13 by Nathan A. Klaus · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Health Professions · #Botany and Plant Ecology Studies #Lichen and fungal ecology #Therapeutic Uses of Natural Elements
paper · doi:10.1080/15594491.2025.2498186
openalex publication_date 2025/05/13 · openalex created_date 2025/05/14 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
The consumption of materials which do not provide sustenance is relatively common in the animal world. Geophagy, the consumption of earth, is the most widespread; however, eating ash, charcoal, plastics, or other items not from the earth has also been documented in many animals including birds. I suggest the adoption of the term pica—a term with its roots in early ornithology and which is widely used in human and veterinary medicine—to describe this phenomenon. Pica has been only observed in about 2% of bird species worldwide but likely serves a variety of purposes and thus takes many forms. I detail observations of Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) and Broad-tailed Hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus) consuming charred wood, a form of pica but not geophagy, and speculate that this behavior may enable these species to consume tree sap containing tannins or other toxic compounds.