The parakeet Brotogeris tirica feeds on and disperses the fruits of the palm Syagrus romanzoffiana in Southeastern Brazil

Biota Neotropica

Ivan Sazima¹ 

[1] ,Universidade Estadual de Campinas Museu de História Natural Departamento de ZoologiaCampinas SP ,Brasil

关键词: Bird-plant symbiosis;    Psittacidae;    Arecaceae;    feeding behaviour;    synzoochory;    Simbiose ave-planta;    Psittacidae;    Arecaceae;    comportamento alimentar;    sinzoocoria;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S1676-06032008000100026

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

Small psittacids remain unrecorded as dispersal agents of palm fruits in Brazil. I record here the plain parakeet (Brotogeris tirica), an Atlantic forest endemic, feeding on and dispersing the fruits of the palm Syagrus romanzoffiana at Ubatuba, northern coast of São Paulo, Southeastern Brazil. The birds removed the fruit and carried it away from the mother-tree in about 40% of the feeding records. While perched on trees and shrubs of the understorey, the parakeets removed and ingested most of the mesocarp, dropping the partly consumed fruit. As the parakeets damaged no the embryo and may feed at a distance from the mother-tree, they act as primary dispersal agents. This is the first substantiated record of a small Neotropical psittacid as a stomatochorous dispersal agent of palm fruits the size of A. romanzoffiana drupes.

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