birding-aus
To all,
I think that rather than competition with insects etc for nectar, it is the
fact that
nectar productivity varies over the course of the day. Other considerations
include the metabolism of the bird and the possible need for animals feeding on
high sugar, comparatively low volume foods to break their overnight fast
earlier.
e.g. the need for hummingbirds to go into torpor to survive the night without
feeding. Honeyeaters etc would probably welcome competing insects on the
blossums they visit (with the exception of ants and honeybees for many avian
species) as an extra protein boost and saving of search time, a spin-off on the
"surf and turf mentality"! The early honeyeater would also get more nectar as I
recall; See the couple of papers in recent EMU from Dave Patons group (I
think), I can't remember the exact authors.
Hope this helps, Paul
*******************************************
Paul McDonald
School of Biological Sciences
Macquarie University, Sydney NSW, 2109
Australia
Phone: (02) 9850 8191 Fax: (02) 9850 8245
*******************************************
To unsubscribe from this list, please send a message to
Include "unsubscribe birding-aus" in the message body (without the quotes)
|
