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Thu, 12 Aug 2004 01:14:01 -0700
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From: "Dean Portelli" <>
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Subject: Re: Mistletoebirds
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2004 18:14:00 +1000
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Hi all following this thread,
Mistletoebirds and Flowerpeckers (family Dicaeidae) are not part of the
endemic Australo-Papuan radiation, and so did not evolve in Australia,
they
arrived when Gondwanaland met up with the Asian supercontinent and
allowed
several passerine families to enter Australia (examples include the
Sturnidae - starlings and mynahs, Sylviidae - reed-warblers, cisticolas,
songlarks etc, Zosteropidae - silvereyes and white-eyes, Hirundinidae -
swallows and martins) to join the already diverse Australo-Papuan
lineages
(Lyrebirds, Bowerbirds, Treecreepers, Scrub-birds, Wrens, Robins,
Whistlers
and allies, Honeyeaters, Pardalotes, Thornbills & allies, Woodswallows &
allies, Corvids, Mud-nesters, Monarchs & Flycatchers, Babblers,
Logrunners &
others).
So, it is possible that the species arrived in Australia after the Bass
Strait was formed. However, it is also possible that Tasmania's climate
was
not suitable for the species, being much further south with
correspondingly
colder temperatures, or the absence of Mistletoes in Tasmania (assuming
that
they were never there and did not simply become extinct subsequently)
may
have played a large role. Lawrie mentioned the theory of island
biogeography
and it's relationship to species diversity and richness, I doubt this
has
much relevance to the Mistletoebird or Tasmania in general, as it is a
very
big island(!!), and the theory applies mostly to smaller 'typical'
islands
(recall that Australia itself is regarded as an island, but the theory
has
no applicability to Australia on a broad scale).
One last comment about Mistletoebirds. I was interested by Carol's
observations of feeding. I recently watched a male Mistletoebird
feeding on
mistletoe in far-western NSW and observed him mandibulate the misteltoe
fruit to break the skin and release the flesh-coated seed into his
mouth, he
then swallowed this and discarded the skin by dropping it. I
investigated a
fruit and found the flesh is very easily broken at one end and the flesh
comes out very easily, but the seed is difficult to separate from the
flesh.
Is this typical of Misteltoe fruits? And, Carol, could you see the
actual
seed with the skin wiped on the branch?
Cheers, Dean
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