Sparrows eating buds from the plum tree

unhappy_shopper

I have seen sparrows and tits stripping the Victoria Plum tree in my garden of its flower buds and the tiny fruits which have just formed during the past few days. I do not begrudge the birds their early morning breakfast nor their dinner; it just baffles me as I thought initially that they were just after the insects, but they were actually plucking the tiny fruit buds and dropping them into the ground. I can see about 10-12 birds illustriously doing this ransacking :-( They do not seem to be attacking the other fruit trees (apple, pear or cheery) though. Why are they doing this?

Farway

I think it something to do with the colour spectrum birds can see, for instance only peck certain colours of primroses, thinking they are food

Look on the bright side, at least your plum had fruit buds to peck at, unlike my poor blossom free effort