Birds eat Spanish Cherry fruit

 

Spanish Cherry (Mimusops elengi)  Tanjong Tree.Bullet Wood

Pokok Tanjung, Spanish Cherry tree

This tree was planted by a housing developer just 2 meters from my house's perimeter wall. The fruit ripens in July after flowering in April.

Also known as "bullet wood," this is a strong and tough wood. I have pruned it a few times, and even the small branches are hard to cut with a parang. After the fruiting is over, I will give it another prune.

  

Tanjong Tree, Bunga Tanjung or Spanish Cherry (Mimusops elengi)

The fruit is about 2-3 cm in size, yellow-red when ripe.

Yellow-vented foraged in Spanish Cherry tree

Yellow-vented bulbul (pycnonotus goiavier)

I also sported Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis strigata) and Javan Myna (Acridotheres javanicus) eating the fruits, but unable to photograph it.

 The fruits are too big to swallow whole, so the bulbul just nibbles the exocarp.

I have documented this bubul eating fucus fruits, Fucus Benjamina  HERE

The bird eats the sweet mesocarp the fleshy middle layer of the pericarp of a fruit.

I collect the dry flower, the half-eaten fruit, and the seeds discarded by the bird.