Xenospiza
Distracted
The toxicity of cyanide containing seeds is not as high for birds as it is for mammals.
Cedar Waxwings have been reported to be tolerant of high levels of amygdalin (this is the cyanide-containing compound in seeds of e.g. cherries and hawthorn: https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v116n03/p0749-p0758.pdf.
This is probably true for other seed eating (and dispersing!) birds as well. This would make sense, because it would not be helpful for a plant to kill the animals helping them getting dispersed! (as I noted in proposition 11 accompanying my doctorate thesis back in 2001, haha).
Cedar Waxwings have been reported to be tolerant of high levels of amygdalin (this is the cyanide-containing compound in seeds of e.g. cherries and hawthorn: https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v116n03/p0749-p0758.pdf.
This is probably true for other seed eating (and dispersing!) birds as well. This would make sense, because it would not be helpful for a plant to kill the animals helping them getting dispersed! (as I noted in proposition 11 accompanying my doctorate thesis back in 2001, haha).