Yellow-vented Bulbul eating Tabernaemontana corymbosa fruits
Posted by BESG on 29 July 08, Tuesday
Contributed by Joseph Lai
Joseph Lai came across a Tabernaemontana corymbosa tree at the end of Liane Road along the Garden Jungle in the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
“It was fascinating observing how the Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) hovered in the air like a hummingbird to snatch a seed or two from below the down-turned opening of the fruit. I also saw the less tedious way it fed - by positioning itself on the nearest twig to peck at the seeds.”
All images by Joseph Lai.
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Categories: Feeding-plants
Comment by Richard Corlett
Made Tuesday, 29 of July , 2008 at 8:26 am
One of my postgraduate students in Hong Kong, Jacqui Weir, measured how long seeds take to pass through the guts of Chinese (= light-vented) and red-whiskered bulbuls and, using radio-telemetry, how far the bird moved, on average, during the gut passage time. It turned out that the bulbuls were moving most seeds less than 100 metres, but the occasional one more a kilometre. I can send the paper to anyone who is interested.
Cheers,
Richard Corlett, NUS
Comment by haniman
Made Tuesday, 29 of July , 2008 at 11:54 pm
That’s excellent Richard. I think the Mod can put up the paper on this blog for all to share and learn =)
Comment by BESG
Made Wednesday, 30 of July , 2008 at 6:19 am
Richard has sent me a copy of the paper. I will summarise it as a future post.
Pingback by Bird Ecology Study Group » Seed dispersal by bulbuls in Hong Kong
Made Sunday, 2 of November , 2008 at 12:10 am
[...] Richard noted in his comment on bulbul eating fruits of Tabernaemontana corymbosa: “One of my postgraduate students in Hong [...]
