Page "Thrush (bird)" Paragraph 8

Many bats and birds rely heavily on fruit for their diet, some birds include members of the families Cotingidae, Columbidae, Trogonidae, Turdidae, and Rhamphastidae, they swallow seeds, then regurgitate them or pass them in their faeces.

Such ornithochory has been a major mechanism of seed dispersal across ocean barriers.

Other seeds may stick to the feet or feathers of birds, and in this way may travel long distances.

Seeds of grasses, spores of algae, and the eggs of molluscs and other invertebrates commonly establish in remote areas after long journeys of such types.

The Turdidae group have a great ecological importance because some populations migrate long distances and they disperse the seeds of many endangered species into the swallow berries at new sites helping to eliminate inbreeding and increasing the genetic diversity of plant species.