Question

Ornithophily refers to the pollination by which of the following?
(a) Insects
(b) Birds
(c) Snails
(d) Air

Answer 1

The act of transferring the pollen grains from the anther of a flower to the stigma is the process of pollination. There are mainly two types of pollination. They are natural and artificial.

Complete answer:
Ornithophily refers to the transfer of pollen grains from the anther to the stigma of a flower with the help of birds. Simply we can say, ornithophily is the bird pollination.
Examples of bird pollinators are hummingbirds and sunbirds.
- The pollen grains from a male part of a plant(anther) transfer to a female part of a plant(stigma) , later enabling fertilization and the production of seeds, most often by air or by pollinators like animals is known as pollination.
- Pollinating agents that are involved in pollination other than wind and water are animals such as insects, birds, and bats, and self- pollination occur within a closed flower(cleistogamy) by the absence of pollinating agents.
- Pollination often occurs within a species. It can produce hybrid offspring in nature when pollination occurs between species.
Pollinators
A pollinator is an animal that moves or transfers pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma of a flower. This helps to bring about fertilization of the ovules in the flower by the male gametes from the pollen grains after the process.
The few most common pollinating agents are:
Insect pollination: Entomophily
Bird pollination: Ornithophily
Pollination by snails: Malacophily
Wind pollination: Anemophily
Water pollination: Hydrophily
Bat pollination: chiropterophily
So, the correct answer is ‘birds’.

Note:
- Pollination can take place by the absence of pollinating agents as well as with pollinators.
- The pollination with the help of pollinating agents can bring about evolution and variation.
Two types of pollination are present and they are called self- pollination and cross- pollination.
- Self- pollination is the pollination that involves a single flower.
- Cross- pollination is the pollination that involves more than one flower.