Satin Bowerbird– food

SEQ 500m
For those interested in this data:
Past few years I’ve watched green Satin Bowerbirds feeding on developing flowers of the Liquidambar next to the house. Finally yesterday I was able to see what they’re doing, mechanically–
They first snap off the (male) raceme & drop it to the ground. Immediately they feed with gusto on what’s left behind. Examination, & the description BELOW, would suggest this is the female flower (containing “many ovules”). After a time the birds all drop to the ground, near/under the hedge beneath, & forage among the dead leaves there.
Cheers
Judith…
According to Wikipedia (text & photos at Mobile site en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquidambar_styraciflua# ), the “Sweetgum” flowers “are typically about 1–1.5 inches (25–38 mm) in diameter and are covered with rusty hairs.[12] The flowers are unisexual[17]and greenish in color. Staminate flowers in terminal racemes two to three inches long, the pistillate in a solitary head on a slender peduncle borne in the axil of an upper leaf. Staminate flowers destitute of calyx and corolla, but are surrounded by hairy bracts. Stamens indefinite; filaments short; anthers introrse. Pistillate flowers with a two-celled, two-beaked ovary, the carpels produced into a long, recurved, persistent style. The ovaries all more or less cohere and harden in fruit. There are many ovules but few mature.[9]”
JLA
This note’s from the mobile.
Reply to: jlukin01@postoffice.csu.edu.au