The bird I am featuring this week is not a bird. It is not a plane. It is not a fox. It is a flying fox!
These birds (I mean bats) weight about 1 kilo and have a wingspan of a meter or so, and have been a great spectacle for us to watch here in Brisbane, as they fly up the river near our lodgings in the evening, flying up from wherever they camp. In the daytime they camp in great numbers in trees. Hundreds of them fly up the river and then spread out in search of food…after the bird hour, comes the bat hour!
Come evening they seek out their food — which is primarily pollen but also fruit sometimes. How do they seek these things by echolocation, Deb and I wondered? How might a blind bat find what it needs in the trees, we wondered, as we watch one land in a tree just a few meters away?
The answer is that they find what they need just as you and I would find flowers, using a good sense of smell and a good pair of eyes – yes they can see! Except of course, we can’t fly so we don’t have access to the great number of trees they do.
This ability to fly is of great benefit to the trees they pollinate which have flowers that open at night. In fact, they fly many kilometers every night conducting their pollinator service.
And to watch them fly is quite a thrill. We are used to our “little brown bats” in North America but these bats look a bit more Pterosaur-like flapping along like a bat on a mission with their one meter wing spans. We could watch them all night…see the video for some of the bat action!
[note all photos and videos in these “bird of the week” features were taken by either me or my wife Deb]