Gourmet feast of wild birds ——Food plants | Flowers and fruits

✅ Easily visible (The nectar is deep in the flower and unfriendly to shorter, thicker beaks)

✅ Soft and easy to eat (fruit shell)

✅ Clean and easy to ' chew ' (less fiber than leaves)

When we walk into the world of birds and enjoy their pleasant sounds, may we worry about wild birds being able to eat? What do they eat? In fact, wild birds eat 'vegetarian' in addition to 'meat '. Which plants provide 'vegetarian meals' for birds? Here we know the food plants together!

The so-called 'food plants' are plants that can provide nectar, fruits, seeds and other 'rations' to animals. Ginkgo biloba, Robinia pseudoacacia, Toona sinensis, Sophora japonica, Pyrus betulaefolia, Diospyros kaki, Castanea mollissima, Prunus cerasifera, Ziziphus jujuba, Morus alba, Euonymus maackii, Tilia amurensis all belong to this. Four seasons rotation, food source plants continue to multiply, they are wild birds ' feast. There are sweet flowers and honey powder in spring, juicy berries in summer, tired fruits in autumn and nuts in winter.

“Honey tree”- Leucosceptrum canum

In spring, flowers bloom, and flowers bring food to the birds. There are many flower-visiting birds, but they are not necessarily ' professional ' nectar eaters. The nectar provided by plants to birds is more of a reward for pollinators. Of course, birds do not visit flowers to pollinate plants.

The horny beak used by birds to absorb nectar is very smooth, and only the nectary located in the flower or outside the flower can be sucked into the mouth. Therefore, birds that mainly feed on nectar are more inclined to have long beaks, such as solar ornithidae. Short-beaked birds such as Starlings and Bulbulidae are more opportunistic, do not take nectar as the main food, and feed on nectar with shorter floral tubes and shallower positions.

The debate between long and short beaks in hummingbirds

Long beak and short beak correspond to different lengths of flower tubes, respectively. The tubular corolla of bird-borne plants hides nectar deeply, so that the feathers of birds contact pollen first, so as to achieve the purpose of plant pollination. At the same time, in order to prevent unearned gains, the long flower tube of the plant provides nectar with a relatively high sucrose content. Most of the short-beaked bird species lack enzymes to decompose sucrose in the digestive system, and the nutrition is not easy to be absorbed, which is often said to be ' eaten white '.

The nectar of plants is mostly colorless. In recent years, it has been found that the nectar of at least 70 plants in nature is very rare, showing peculiar colors such as yellow, orange, red, brown, green, blue and black. Mt. Gaoligong is a sacred place for bird-watching. The rice ball flowers on the mountain provide a large amount of bird-eaten nectar for flower-honeybirds.

Leucosceptrum canum is a rare large woody plant in Labiatae. According to the research, the nectar of the rice ball is brown, and the rice ball is also the only colored nectar plant found in the Labiatae so far. It can attract more than 40 kinds of birds to feed on it.

The chemical structure of Leucosceptrum canum-visiting and DPBQ

In this study, an experimental study was conducted on the bird behavior of Zosterops japonicus, one of the pollinators of rice balls. At the same time, compared with the bird behavior response of nectar, honey, (-) -DPBQ and (+) -DPBQ, it was finally confirmed that DPBQ mainly attracts pollinating birds through its color. A novel class of plant nectar pigments was discovered, which revealed the elusive chemical and ecological functions of colored nectar plants for the first time.

Color comparison of different concentrations of DPBQ solution and Leucosceptrum canum nectar (e)

The original rice flowers by changing the color of nectar to pass palatability information, only the effective pollination of short-beaked bird species to identify!

'Bird tree ' - Camphora officinarum

Camphora officinarum

The evergreen tree camphor, tall and tall, the canopy is lush in all seasons, and the fruit is full and fruitful. From May tJune, green and white flowers bloomed. From July to August, the fruit of C.camphora was spherical, with a diameter of 7-8 mm. The mature fruit of C.camphora in late autumn had changed from green to purple-black berries.

Turdus merula

The fruit of Cinnamomum camphora has attracted more than ten kinds of birds, such as gray magpie, turtle dove, blackbird, blackbird, purplebird, gray starling, mercerized starling, yellow-bellied tit, great tit, red-headed long-tailed tit and so on. They are regular customers and consumers of Cinnamomum camphora fruit. Therefore, the camphor tree is known as the ' bird-catching tree ', which is a place for birds to gather together. Fruit plants such as camphor are very important for overwintering birds. No matter how it tastes, they can at least be fed and overwinter safely.

Fruits of Camphora officinarum

'Spicy seed tree ' -Sapium sebiferum

A kind of 'lethal' poisonous insect called ' Spicy ' is often gathered on the tree of Sapium sebiferum. When passing under the tree, it is worried that Spicy will fall on the body, and occasionally birds will peck them to 'open meat and relieve greed'. Sapium sebiferum can be called 'Horseradish Tree 'In addition to its full body of 'Horseradish ' poison, the sap of Sapium sebiferum itself is poisonous. If it is splashed on the skin, it will feel the same pain as the sting of 'Horseradish ' poison, so Sapium sebiferum is commonly known as 'Horseradish Tree'. Sapium sebiferum is not useless. Studies have confirmed that the water extract of the root bark of Sapium sebiferum has inhibitory effects on Escherichia coli and Shigella at different temperatures of 60 degrees, 80 degrees and 100 degrees.

Fruits of Sapium sebiferum

The mature fruit of Sapium sebiferum is very similar to popcorn. The pear-shaped spherical capsule of Sapium sebiferum is green when it is immature. After maturity, it becomes brownish black, splits into three pieces, and exposes three spherical seeds. The seed is covered with a white waxy aril, and its epithet sebiferum is ' waxy fruit '. The ancients used the wax on the seeds of Sapium sebiferum to make soap and candles, and removed the waxy seeds to extract oil. The seed oil of Sapium sebiferum is toxic and cannot be eaten, but it can be used to light the lamp. Now Sapium sebiferum seeds can also be used to extract oil for advanced lubricants for aircraft and automobiles.

Zosterops simplex

The dark green hydrangea and the gray tree magpie prefer to eat the seeds of tallow, but why wouldn't the birds be poisoned by eating seeds? The original bird will choose the seed toxicity content is relatively low stage of eating, at the same time, the bird metabolism is strong, the food in the intestinal tract residence time is short, the toxicity can not fully play a role, more birds before eating, will eliminate the toxic and unpleasant part. Birds have a unique physiological mechanism against antitoxins, and some birds also detoxify by eating some soil.

The taste of animals is essentially a protective mechanism to avoid the body from ingesting toxic and harmful substances. Some plant fruits contain more alkaloids when the seeds are immature, so the taste is poor. This is the need for plants to ensure that their seeds are not affected and destroyed by the outside world before they mature. After the maturity of plant seeds, they need to be eaten by specific animal groups, and spread seeds with the help of animal power. At this time, plants will release odor pheromones. Some birds can accurately feel the pheromones released by plants, and choose the nectar, fruits and seeds of food source plants in real time. The feeding period is to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, so as to ensure that they can solve their ' food and clothing problem ' in the field. For example, after the persimmon fruit is red, it will still hang on the branch for a period of time, but after a period of time, it will be found that it is not known when the birds will eat the persimmon fruit. Singing and playing on the same persimmon tree.

Birds were eating persimmon scene.

Different birds have different preferences for fruits. Pacific birds like to eat crabapple berries, goldenfinchs like to eat cypress fruit, large spotted woodpeckers like to eat oak fruit, willow warblers like to eat tangdi fruit. Birds are very rich in food plants in the wild, such as wild hawthorn, wild rose, cold berries, mulberry, privet, and sour jujube. They provide food for wild 'vegetarian' birds. Birds will also spread the undigested seeds in the fruit to farther places through fecal excretion, allowing plants to reproduce continuously. Birds and plants live together, are mutually beneficial, co-evolve, promote each other 's development, and promote and maintain ecological balance.