Conservation Conversations: Sunbirds and flower colour - Dr Anina Coetzee (17Aug21) скачать в хорошем качестве

Conservation Conversations: Sunbirds and flower colour - Dr Anina Coetzee (17Aug21)

On Tuesday, 17 August 2021 at 19:00 (SAST), BirdLife South Africa's weekly webinar series ‘Conservation Conversations with BirdLife South Africa’ hosted Dr Anina Coetzee, a lecturer in nature conservation at Nelson Mandela University. Birds have exceptional vision. In fact, they can see more colours than humans can. Sunbirds use this sharp vision to seek out the best flowers to feed from. Sunbirds feed on the nectar provided by flowers, and these flowers depend on the sunbirds to pollinate them so they can produce seeds. Flowers compete for the attention of sunbirds and they use flower colour to attract them. The fynbos endemic Orange-breasted Sunbird pollinates Cape Erica flowers, which have a puzzling diversity of flower colours. Do the colour preferences and behaviour of sunbirds explain the diversity of flower colours in Erica species? Dr Anina Coetzee studied this fascinating system during her time at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town. She is now based at Nelson Mandela University’s George Campus where she continues her research on the conservation of fynbos and forests.