Sunbird puncturing the Datura flower base and feeding on nectar

[raghu ananth]

Sunbird puncturing the Ipomoea carnea - morning glory family (?) flower base and feeding on nectar

9.30 am, 9 March, 2009 at Tailoor lake in Kokkare Bellur

This shrub is found in abundance all over the banks of the  Tailoor lake (~300 acres).

The flower bud seems in no particular hurry to bloom but that does not seem to bother the purple sunbird. Well, remember the tale of the thirsty crow?

Even though the long tubes of the flower seem to be out of reach, the small bird displays enough intelligence to puncture the flower base and feed on the nectar happily and move on to the next plant.

Next time, anyone calls you a bird brain, take that as a compliment!

Ipomoea carnea Convolvulaceae (morning glory family) 

(Tailoor lake is a paradise for wet land water birds - Coot, Cormorant, Spot billed duck, long legged stilt, Pelican, waders and numerous  migratory birds

Regards

Raghu

[Mahadeswara]

Visual treat! Thanks for posting nice photographs and the info. on
the lake.

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[shrikant ingalhalikar]

Dear Raghu,

The Sunbird picture is an eye opener for those who strongly advise
removal of Ipomoea carnae from water bodies. They claim that this
exotic is not visited by any bird and is harmful (?) to the wetland
habitats. I have found that Ipomoea-Typha community creates floating
masses of vegetation that supports a lot of aquatic flora and fauna.
It also offers the shelter and breeding sites to aquatic birds.
Recently all such 'weeds' were removed from a water body in Pune due
to which the dwindling population of birds fell down to almost zero.
Pistia that was in controlled proportion earlier now occupies the
entire lake suggesting eutrophication.
I would like members to post their observations on these aspects.
Regards,

On Jul 18, 1:51 am, raghu ananth <raghu_...@yahoo.com> wrote:

[Madhuri Pejaver]

Dear Raghuji
where is this Tailoor Lake situated?
Madhuri

--- On Mon, 18/7/11, shrikant ingalhalikar <le...@rediffmail.com> wrote:

[Ushadi micromini]

what an important documentation!!!

Your subject line says datura flower, and then main text talks of
Ipomea...
confusing

Usha di
===

On Jul 18, 9:21 am, shrikant ingalhalikar <le...@rediffmail.com>
wrote:

[ushadi Micromini]

Dear Raghu:
please do not apologize for the large picture, enjoyed it...
matter of fact it means that large size picture can easily be transmitted... and viewed... details were spectacular..
many people send pictures that are so hazy that I cant see almost any details...
may be the google group rules were set up so that storage space could be saved....
that's important too...
Be well...
usha di
======

On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 5:41 PM, raghu ananth <ragh...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Usha di,

Made a couple of mistakes here.Thanks for pointing.

- forgot to make changes in the subject line.

- sent large sized photographs instead of the eflora prescribed file size. In fact overwrote small sized files with large size through Image editor.

- sent a draft version of the mail instead of the edited version

Pls excuse for all these faults.

Regards

Raghu

---

From: Ushadi micromini <micromi...@gmail.com>
To: efloraofindia <indian...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, 18 July 2011 4:40 PM
Subject: [efloraofindia:74411] Re: Sunbird puncturing the Datura flower base and feeding on nectar