Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Feeding on grain and seeds.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Eating grain; feeding or subsisting on seeds: as, granivorous birds.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Eating grain; feeding or subsisting on seeds.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
grain and seed eating.
Etymologies
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Examples
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The abundance of granivorous rodents and the occurrence of marsupial genera (e.g., species of Planigale and Sminthhopsis) that dominate dry habitats of modern Australia suggest that if rainforest was present, it was confined to refugia within the region.
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The grasslands and savanna woodlands support a very rich and abundant assemblage of granivorous birds, including the endangered gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae).
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Evidence of disarray amongst granivorous bird assemblages in the savannas of northern Australia, a region of sparse human settlement.
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He lives chiefly on seeds, though, like other granivorous birds, he feeds his young with grubs and small insects.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 17, March, 1859 Various
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I will leave the granivorous birds to speak of another class, equally hardy, but of habits more like those of the Woodpecker.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 17, March, 1859 Various
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This bag is very conspicuous in the granivorous tribes immediately after eating.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 13, No. 377, June 27, 1829 Various
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This is a general practice with the granivorous tribes, in order to provide their young with soft and digestible food before they are strong enough to digest the hard, coriaceous seed.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 17, March, 1859 Various
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Thirty-five to forty species of granivorous birds, among which we occasionally find in winter that rare Arctic bird, the Evening Grosbeak.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 43, May, 1861 Creator Various
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A garrulous population of birds enliven the forest; they are insectivorous, granivorous, and omnivorous but all are beautiful in their rich and wonderful variety of colour.
My Friends the Savages Notes and Observations of a Perak settler (Malay Peninsula) Giovanni Battista Cerruti 1882
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If Shakespeare had made the house sparrow, or the blackbird, or the bunting, or any of the granivorous, hard-billed birds, the foster-parent of the cuckoo, his natural history would have been at fault.
The Writings of John Burroughs — Volume 05: Pepacton John Burroughs 1879
michaelt42 commented on the word granivorous
Ecology © 1991 Ecological Society of America
Abstract:
In order to quantify the response of birds to experimental manipulations of seed availability and densities of granivorous rodents and ants, we counted granivorous birds and measured diurnal and nocturnal seed removal on 24 plots during winter months in the Chihuahuan Desert. Removal of single, widely spaced millet seeds provided a reliable measure of bird and rodent foraging activity. Avian foraging activity increased in response to supplemental seeds, but decreased in response to long-term removal of all rodents and all ants. Although birds potentially compete for seeds with rodents and ants, these results suggest that, in the long term, indirect facilitation dominates the interactions among all three taxa. The positive effect of the other granivores on birds may be mediated through changes in habitat structure (e.g., reduction in the density of annual plants). The increase of avian foraging in response to seed addition and the high spatial and temporal variance in the patterns of seed removal by birds indicate that in desert habitats granivorous birds use their mobility to find and exploit high concentrations of seeds. Thus, birds may reduce the spatial variation in seed abundance and reduce the densities of seed available to other granivores. The foraging behavior of birds and rodents revealed by these experiments clarifies the response of granivores to experimental manipulations reported earlier, such as the lack of biomass compensation by rodents in response to seed addition.
August 3, 2012