Question

Explain the following term : Ornithophily.

Answer 1

Hint: Ornithophily is also called as bird pollination, It is nothing but pollination of flowering plants by the birds, it is said to be a Coevolutionary association which Is derived from insect pollination, especially in some parts of the world.

Complete answer:
The association between this bird pollination and insect pollination involves several distinctive plant adaptive things forming a pollination syndrome.
The plants in which this happens must have colorful flowers, maybe that and have the long tubular structures and the reproductive parts are like stigma and stamens are arranged in such ways, like easy for the pollinators to collect.
The birds involved in the ornithophily are good nectarivores.
They might have some special features like a brushy tongue and long beak in order to collect the things
Mostly this type of specialized things like pollination by birds done by special birds like hummingbirds
The plants in which this type of pollination happens are mostly red in color and have a lot of nectar.
The plants with generalized pollinators usually have the dilute nectars while the plants with specialized pollinators might have the very concentrated nectar
There is a difference in the sugar composition of nectar in the plants with bird pollinators and insect pollinators.
The flowers with insect pollinators have Sucrose rich nectars
There are different adaptations for the plants with bird pollinators, some plants may have explosive flowers, some may explode after the bird’s actions.
The families of specialized nectar-feeding birds are hummingbirds, sunbirds, and honeyeaters, etc.

Note:
Some of the examples of the ornithophilous plants are, bottle brush, red coral tree, and silk cotton and examples of birds are hummingbirds, sunbirds, honeyeaters, and honeycreepers, etc.