birding-aus

exoctic nector "theft"

To: Philip Veerman <>, "" <>
Subject: exoctic nector "theft"
From: David Bruce <>
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2017 01:45:39 +0000
Brown honeyeaters do this to our hibiscus plants in our garden in inner Perth

David Bruce

-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus  On Behalf Of 
Philip Veerman
Sent: Monday, 16 October 2017 8:44 AM
To: 
Subject: exoctic nector "theft"

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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