STAR: Songbirds as potential pollinators? Uncovering bird-flower interactions in North America

Pollination is a critical life-supporting process for people and nature. Understanding and reversing pollinator declines is one of the great environmental challenges of the 21st century. In the United States, migrating birds that usually eat insects have also been observed foraging in flowers. However, there has been little previous research on songbird flower foraging for this region. Understanding this behavior is important because migratory birds regularly move longer distances than insect pollinators. If birds are transporting pollen along these migratory routes, they could help improve genetic diversity in plant populations, making both natural and agricultural systems more resilient. This research will help raise awareness about the importance of birds and pollination for human wellbeing. For example, one of the project outcomes will be a short film showcasing this topic, which will be paired with other materials to create a teaching module for middle school students focused on the unexpected ways that animals help with plant pollination. Overall, this project is expected to improve understanding of birds and the potential role they play in pollination, a process that is critical to sustaining biodiversity and agricultural systems for future generations. This project aims to fundamentally advance the way we understand plant-pollinator networks in North America by addressing the following research questions: 1) what individual bird characteristics or environmental factors are associated with the presence of pollen on songbirds?; 2) Are particular plant morphological characteristics associated with a higher probability of flower-foraging and pollen-carrying by songbirds?; 3) Does species richness or the relative abundance of functional groups contribute to resilience factors in bird-flower networks? The researchers will collaborate with bird banding stations to collect pollen samples from songbirds, and use DNA metabarcoding to identify the pollen. These data will be applied to models that will test predictions about the association between pollen presence, bird, and environmental characteristics, and to understand the links between plant characteristics and flower visitation by songbirds. This study has strong potential to stimulate new lines of research in songbird foraging and migration ecology, long-distance pollen dispersal, and plant-pollinator dynamics. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.