So in these cases the plants appear to be missing out and have not yet
caught up. Presumably there are other individuals or species of birds or
insects..... that are doing it right for the plants and doing the
pollination.
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
John Leonard
Sent: Monday, 16 October, 2017 11:05 AM
Cc: <>
Subject: exoctic nector "theft"
In Central and South America there are finches whose modus operandi is
precisely this.... The Flower-piercers.
John Leonard
> On 16 Oct 2017, at 10:23 am, "Barney Enders" <>
wrote:
>
> While trying to get some good photos of the Yellow-bellied Sunbird feeding
> on beautiful large Hibiscus flowers I found most of them never came to
the
> front of the flower to
>
> put their head in to get the nectar out but stayed hidden behind the back
of
> the flower where they drilled a hole to put their beak into the base
getting
> the nectar that way.
Watching Noisy Miners in the golden trumpet trees, I see that they are
piercing the bases of the large flowers to access the nectar. I had heard of
birds doing this with introduced blooms the world over but had not seen it
before. I'm guessing Darwin never got to see this.?
For those collecting such data, this exotic genus, used as street trees in
Brisbane for their brief but spectacular blossoming, (& flowering a bit
later up here,) are as follows - "Tabebuia aurea is a species of Tabebuia
native to South America in Suriname, Brazil, eastern Bolivia, Peru,
Paraguay, and northern Argentina."
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabebuia_aurea>
Judith
SEQ asl 500m
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