Mistletoe seeds need to be delivered to suitable branches to germinate, so seed dispersers are essential for these parasitic plants. In central Chile, the Chilean mockingbird (Mimus thenca) has long been considered the main disperser of Tristerix corymbosus. But in Curauma, an urban area near Valparaíso where invasive Acacia trees now dominate, we found something different. Using focal observations and camera traps, we recorded 181 fruit-consumption events, and about 60% of them were made by the Rufous-tailed plantcutter (Phytotoma rara), a bird known to feed almost entirely on leaves and other plant tissue in winter.
Plantcutters swallowed mistletoe fruits whole and took up to 59 fruits in a single visit, far more than the other birds we observed. Because they use Acacia trees as perches, they are probably depositing mistletoe seeds on those same trees, which may help explain the heavy infestations in this urban setting. We may be witnessing a new combination of interactions driven by urbanization: invasive trees attract a new disperser, which in turn favors the mistletoe’s spread among those trees.
You can read the full article here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40415-026-01164-0