Pollinators Flock to the Painkiller Tree

Flambeau butterflies visited the flowers of the painkiller tree, aka starvation fruit. 

 

People have been remarking that there are very few butterflies this season. Maybe because it was so dry, before our recent weekend of rain. 

 

I have hardly seen any butterflies in my yard. However, when I went to the beach, I noticed that there were swarms of them on the flowering Morinda citrifolia trees, which are apparently quite drought tolerant. They are known locally as ‘painkiller trees’ or ‘starvation fruit’. In Hawaii they are called ‘noni’ and the fruit (which is not generally eaten in the Virgin Islands), has become popular as a health food. 

 

The painkiller name is not related to the potent rum drink, but to the traditional use of the  large leaves to wrap and sooth sore muscles. It is native to Asia and has become naturalized in the Virgin Islands, probably because it is so attractive to pollinators.    

 

The first butterfly I noticed was a Flambeau (Dryas iulia) which has bright orange wings with dark lines. There are only a couple of stripes on each wing, so it is easy to distinguish them from local Monarch and Gulf Fritillary butterflies – which also have orange on their wings but more patterning. These butterflies drink nectar and eat pollen, and help the tree make fruit by passing some of the pollen on to the next flower. However, the Flambeaus will mostly lay their eggs on the Passionfruit vine, their host plant, rather than on the painkiller tree. 

 

This Great Southern White butterfly dipped its proboscis into one of the small flowers. 

 

Great Southern White butterflies (Ascia monuste) also found these flowers. Some years we have enjoyed huge numbers of these white butterflies, but it seems there wasn’t enough rain this year at the right time for a big hatching. We’ll see if the recent rain makes a difference. These butterflies are important pollinators for many plants but in the Virgin Islands usually lay their eggs on the Limber Caper trees.   

A small Choranthus vitellius butterfly rested for a moment on one of the green fruits. 

                            

 

Another smaller species of butterfly, Choranthus vitellius, fluttered around a different painkiller tree. I hadn’t seen that one before and had to look it up. It is a type of ‘skipper’ – called that because it darts around so quickly. It has a small, thick body, more like a moth, and antennas with tiny hooks on them.    

 

A big female carpenter bee plopped down on a stalk of flower buds.

 

And it wasn’t just butterflies that were attracted to the painkiller trees. Some large native carpenter bees (Xylocopa mordax) also came to the small flowers to enjoy some hard-to-find nectar and pollen.

 

Jack Spaniard wasps also have a taste for nectar. 

 

The Polistes crinitus wasps, known locally as Jack Spaniards, came too. Wasps are related to bees and also enjoy the sweet nectar, though they don’t make honey with it. They do provide pollination services, though, as they move from flower to flower. 

 

A female Antillean Crested Hummingbird rested on a branch near the painkiller tree. 

 

Hummingbirds like nectar too, and can also serve as pollinators. They are so fast they move like a blur around the tree, so it is hard to actually catch a photo of them on a flower. However, they rest in between nectar-seeking missions, and it is easier to get them in focus when they are sitting on a branch.  

 

While the green fruits of this tree may have nutritional or medicinal virtues, they become soft and pale when they are ripe and have a smell that has been described as ‘vomit-like’. Hence, the name ‘starvation fruit’, suggesting that they are only eaten when there is nothing else available, like after a hurricane. The funky smell of the ripe fruit is probably designed to attract fruit bats, which then help disperse the tree’s seeds. 

 

Pearly-eyed Thrashers will check out painkiller fruits to see if they are soft enough.

 

When the soft fruits fall on the ground, they become squishy walking hazards, especially if they are partially hidden in the sand along a popular beach. But some birds are happy to eat the smelly ripe fruits, including the omnivorous Pearly-eyed Thrashers. I also recently saw a sad-looking chicken at Hawksnest beach on St. John tucking into a squishy one on the ground, probably feeling lucky to find that life-saving starvation fruit. 

 

The island certainly looks much greener after the recent soaking rain, so maybe we will soon be treated to an outburst of new flowers and hatching butterflies, and not just on the painkiller trees. 

 

Rarely Seen Residents Show Up for the Annual St. John Bird Count

Yellow Warbler 

 

Some birds are willing to interact with people, while others prefer to avoid humans as much as possible. Bananaquits, for example, are happy to come get sugar from people’s feeders and are not shy about hanging around in the yard waiting for food. But Yellow Warblers, our only resident warblers, have no use for sugar. They are insect eaters and prefer to stay near the wetlands. 

 

Bananaquits

                                

The annual Christmas bird count sponsored by the VI Audubon Society was held on December 19, 2020. Most of the people counting birds around their homes and neighborhoods checked off seeing the well-fed Bananaquits – 248 were reported – but only three people saw a Yellow Warbler. Pearly-eyed Thrashers are also very visible (88 were counted), though less appreciated than Bananaquits, because they eat the fruits in people’s yards without permission. 

 

Many local birds are shy and secretive, though, so most people never even know they are around. 

 

 

Caribbean Elaenia

                                      

 

For example, it was years before I saw a Caribbean Elaenia, which is supposed to be fairly common, and even longer until I got a good photo. The first time was way out on a forest trail, and the bird was flitting around in the leaves, so I didn’t get a good look. Later, National Park Ranger Laurel Brannick heard some of them singing their special three-note song up in a dry scrubby area near her house. I waited around for a while until eventually one sat down on a branch nearby and posed for me, which was very satisfying. Besides flies and other insects, they also eat small fruits in the forest. (Only six of them were counted in 2021.) 

 

Mangrove Cuckoo

                          

 

More people on St. John have seen Mangrove Cuckoos than the Caribbean Elaenias, but the cuckoos are also pretty secretive. Three were counted in 2021, and 10 the year before. They are beautiful birds, though definitely more often heard than seen. They have a long, croaking gak-gak-gak song that some people say sounds like a monkey howling. Though they mostly hang around in the mangroves searching for caterpillars, spiders, lizards and berries, they can also sometimes be found or heard at higher elevations.   

 

Clapper Rail

                            

 

While White-cheeked Pintail ducks (147 counted) and Black-necked Stilts (52) tend to be easily visible swimming in island ponds, Clapper Rails usually stick to the edges, skulking through the mangroves. (Only four were counted.) Though their calls are loud and clattering, it took several years of bird watching before I saw one out in the open. They are about the size of chickens, with long bills that they use to poke in the mud for fiddler crabs and insects. They will also sometimes run out into the pond to grab a small fish. 

   

 

Green Heron

                      

 

Green herons keep watch over their ponds, cackling out warnings when strange birds or other intruders appear. They catch fish but are not swimmers. Instead a Green Heron will wade out, or walk along a low branch, and watch carefully for motion in the water, then stretching out its neck really quickly to make a strike. Or it walks along the edge poking around for fiddler crabs and insects. Green Herons don’t go far from their ponds, and sound an alarm if people get too close. Seven were counted in 2021.

 

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

                                 

 

A Yellow-crowned Night Heron hunts the land crabs that come out at night, stabbing holes in their shells with its thick bill. The night herons usually hide out during the day and rest, and you mostly only see one when you enter its territory and disturb it. They don’t seem particularly frightened though, and will stay nearby to see what’s going on. Three were seen on the count day. 

 

Least Grebe mother and baby 

                     

 

I have seen a family of Least Grebes in a small pond across from a heavily used beach, in plain view but invisible to most people walking by. Others are likely hidden in other ponds around the island. Three were counted for 2021, and eight the year before. These are attractive diving ducks with golden eyes. They mostly eat aquatic insects.  

       

These are just a few of the resident birds sharing the islands. They may be hidden from many of us, but it is important to know that they are here too, and worthy of respect. I am always delighted when I can quietly share their spaces for a little while.