AGM Meeting: Promerops Awards and Monique du Plessis’s presentation on “The effect of artificial nectar feeders on birds and Erica visitation rate in the Cape Fynbos”.
Nectar feeders may have positive effects by attracting nectarivorous birds towards suburbia, facilitating their urban adaptation, and supplementing bird diets when floral resources are scarce. However, this may come at the cost of luring them away from the plants they pollinate in neighbouring indigenous vegetation, with consequences for seed set. Monique will help us understand the responses of nectarivorous bird communities to this relatively novel phenomenon, which might affect all species involved in bird pollination mutualisms.
