Animal Pollinated Flowers

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Because pollination requires suitable pollinator to be successful, animal pollinated flowers have developed a variety of colors, scent and sizes; thus, restricting the kind of animals that visit them. Consequently, only animals with the right characteristics can feed on the nectar, and in return pollinate the flowers.

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A butterfly uses its proboscis to feed on nectar.

Insects generally has keen sense of sight, hence they tend to visit colorful flowers. Butterflies, for example, often visit red, orange and yellow flowers, including those with long tubular tube for they can easily reach the nectar using their long sucking mouthparts.  In contrast, bees cannot see red but they can see blue. This explains why many bee flowers are blue or violet.

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Bees are attracted to blue, purple and violet flowers.

Time of opening also played a crucial part in attracting the right pollinators. Some flowers open at night like those of durian, which are pollinated by bats. Strongly scented and large, the durian also exhibits cauliflory, rendering their flowers accessible to the bats.

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Little Spiderhunter regularly visits banana flowers.

Like insects, birds also rely heavily on color to find food, but they have poor sense of smell. Many bird pollinated flowers are brightly colored, making them conspicuous to the birds. Furthermore, some flowers like banana flowers are large enough to store ample nectar and to support birds like spiderhunters foraging.  However, many exceptions occur in nature. For instance, smaller birds such as flowerpeckers and sunbirds readily visit tiny flowers with cream or whitish color.

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