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Who Follows the Nectar Trail? Migratory Pollinators
Description along with map shows three of the migratory pollinator species on their journey to North. Their migratory "highways" are lined with flowering plants that bloom in a sequence each spring. The blossoms provide crucial refueling stopovers during the winged pollinators' long migrations. Lesser long-nosed bats log as many as 3,200 miles on their round-trip journey each year. Each spring pregnant bats of this endangered species fly up to 100 miles a night, following the wave of cactus blooms from south-central Mexico to Arizona, New Mexico, and Baja California Mexico. They head back south after bearing their young, fueled along the way by flowering agave plants.
Rufous hummingbirds migrate each fall to southern Mexico, feeding off flowering plants on their way. In the spring they again follow the nectar trail as they return to northern California, Oregon, Washington and the Rocky Mountains up through British Columbia and well into southern Alaska.
Millions of monarch butterflies from all over North America fly south every year in late summer and early fall to California, Florida, and a mountainous area in central Mexico. They fuel their migration on the sugars (carbohydrates) found in the nectar of flowering plants.
It shows the the benefits and importance of the nectar trails. Many of our fruits would never grow without help from their pollinators. Honeybees, other wild bee species, and the other migratory animals that transfer pollen between flowers, contribute more than $10 billion a year to fruit and seed production on North American farms. These native pollinators also pollinate rare and endangered plant species.
Migratory Pollinators, Nectar Trail, Lesser Long Nosed Bats, Rufos Hummingbird, Monarch Butterflies.
December 31, 2002 22:00
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California, Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona, Baja California, Southern Alaska