Beauty and the beast?

  

Coastal Bluff Morning-glory (Calystegia purpurata ssp. saxicola) and Poison Oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum), 14 May 2026 

What's for dinner?

 

This afternoon, I was watching this Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) eat fruit from a shrub at Crane Creek Regional Park in Santa Rosa.

I was intrigued because I couldn't remember if I had seen flickers feeding on fruit before.  They're primarily ant-eaters. 

Can you tell what type of fruit this flicker was feeding on?

Warning: The next picture will give away the answer.

Okay, here we go.  He was feeding on...

 

Poison Oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum)!  Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised.  But if you react to Poison Oak like I do, then you wonder how anything can get that close to it, never mind eat it!