G'day Carol, Martin and all,
On more then one occasion return visitors from
overseas have remarked to me about the lack of native
bee's doing pollination work? I've done a fair bit of
research work on this and it seems to hold water that
the major share of pollination done in Australia is in
fact done by birds? I'm still searching on more info
for bird deaths caused by native bee's? so far I've
got a fair bit of data on introduced bee's causing
bird deaths but not much on natives?
Anyone?
If this is proven to be the case? and we are wiping
out bird species like we have no tomorrow, then how
about introducing the American Rufous Hummingbird?
I can't wait for the response to this .... ~:^D>>>
JAG de Whag
Carol Probets <> wrote:
As an aside to this interesting question, I believe
that introduced honeybees will sometimes make a hole
in the base of the floral tube of some bird pollinated
plants in order to access the nectar, bypassing the
pollen and thereby reducing seed set. This would
especially be the case with narrow tubular flowers
such as epacris and some grevilleas, normally
pollinated by spinebills and other long-billed
honeyeaters.
Cheers
Carol Probets
From: Martin on 04/17/2002 02:19 PM
To:
Subject: Feral bee - bird interactions (Aust.)
[snip]
Foraging of honeybees could also lead to a reduction
in seed set of some native plants through nectar
competition with their specialised pollinators (eg.
rare eucalypts and grevilleas).
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