Re: Introduced birds and Bulbuls

David James wrote:
>
> Do you think its the lousy fruiting season (you can see over twnety
> species of frugivore in NQ in a day) or just that disgusting Melbourne
> weather keeping them down? The situation is confounded: is there a > lack of 
> frugivores in Melbourne or are they just not seen because its > too miserable 
> to go out looking for them?
>
Rubbish we have beautiful weather and lots of fructivores (and fruit).
Problem is that the main fructivores are blackbirds and much of the
fruit is coprosma, boneseed, sweet pittosporum... Birds recorded
recently eating (South African) Boxthorn include mistletoebird,
silvereye, spiny-cheeked honeyeater...

The only fruit I saw the local bulbul (survivor from a breeding pair)
feeding on before it disappeared in 1996 was lantana.

Michael Norris
Hampton, Victoria, Australia 3188
roughly 37° 55' S  145° E