Tropical Frugivorous Birds and Their Food Plants: A World Survey

Abstract

A survey is presented of the plant families and genera recorded in the diet of frugivorous birds in the four main tropical forest regions (tropical America, Africa, southeast Asia, Australasia), a distinction being drawn between fruits eaton by specialized frugivores and those eaten by unspecialized, opportunist frugivores. The characteristics of fruits eaten by the two classes of frugivores aro discussed, and available data on their size, composition, and nutritive content are tabulated. Fruits eaten by specialized frugivores are generally large, and have relatively large seeds and high nutritive quality. Of the plant families which have coevolved with frugivorous birds to produce fruits of this kind, three (Lauraceae, Burseraceae, and Palmae) are of outstanding importance. By comparison with the American tropics and Australasia, theB forest flora of Africa is poor in plants of these families, and the number of specialized frugivores is also small. The possibility that there was formerly a richer assemblage of specialized frugivores in Africa, now extinct, is briefly discussed.