Rare Australian bird farms nourishing manna from trees

An endangered Tasmanian songbird doesn’t have to wait for manna from heaven: it goes out and gathers its own.

The forty-spotted pardalote (Pardalotus quadragintus) is the first Australian bird found to deliberately encourage trees to release manna, a sugary crystallised sap. In doing so it not only provides food for its young but might also engineer the environment in a way that benefits other Tasmanian animals.

Read more at the New Scientist website.

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