International Journal of Molecular Evolution and Biodiversity 2016, Vol.6, No.3, 1-8
4
3 Results
In this study, a total of eight species of sunbirds visiting the four plant species were found. Olive-bellied sunbird was
the only visitor to all the four plant species, whilst the Green-headed, Collared, Olive, Copper and Blue-throated
sunbirds were observed to have visited 3 out of the 4 plant species. In contrast, the Green-throated sunbird was the
only one which restricted its visits to only one plant species (
Spathodea
). Seven out of the eight species of sunbirds
visited
Erythrina
and
Callistemon
while six and two sunbird species visited
Spathodea
and
Lilium
respectively
(Table 2).
Table 2 Overall visitor summary
Species
Lilium
Spathodea
Erythrina
Callistemon
Total
Olive-bellied sunbird
+
+
+
+
4
Scarlet-chested sunbird
-
-
+
+
2
Green-headed sunbird
-
+
+
+
3
Collared sunbird
-
+
+
+
3
Olive sunbird
+
-
+
+
3
Copper sunbird
-
+
+
+
3
Blue-throated sunbird
-
+
+
+
3
Green-throated sunbird
-
+
-
-
1
Total
2
6
7
7
22
Olive-bellied sunbird and Green-headed sunbirds had the highest frequency of visit to all plants with 133 and 132
respectively. However, Blue-throated sunbird and Green-throated sunbird had lowest frequency of visitation with 7
and 4 visits respectively (Figure 2).
Figure 2 Frequency of visit of sunbirds to all plants
Table 3 depicts a total of 1 485 flowers visited by eight species of sunbirds during 72 hours of observation.
Olive-bellied and Green-headed sunbirds were the most regular visiting birds with flower visits of 418 and 383
respectively. Blue-throated and green-throated sunbirds visited least regularly with a score of 22 and 17 flower visits
respectively. The flowers of
Erythrina
and
Callistemon
received the highest number of visits with 461 and 464
respectively, and
Lilium
received the least number of visits 211.
