The tree and the bird

Okay, let me share a short-short story.

South America. One of the few places on earth still with rich forest and wildlife.

Now to tell the story of a bird and a tree. This bird survives on the nectar of flowers of a particular tree found in these forests. The bird makes sure that it comes just in time when the tree blooms. A part of the forest turns bright yellow due to the blooming!

So far so good.

But why does the tree bloom? Why does it have the bright yellow on its flowers?

It would want to reproduce, would be a very convenient answer to the first question. On slight thought, the second question would also seem simple: the tree attracts birds by the colour of its bloom as also by its nectar and the birds would, in turn, help it by pollinating its seeds. The birds, while enjoying the nectar, unknowingly stick their heads onto the pollen and when they do the same thing again on a different flower of the tree, accomplish what the tree wanted. So both the tree and the birds get what they want. Win-win situation! Woo, that was simple.

Then where's the problem?

How did the tree come to know that yellow colour attracted the birds.
How did the tree understand that nectar had to be sweet and not of any other taste to attract the birds.

To take this further, the flowers in some trees will be modified to that the birds insert their head sufficiently deep for the nectar. This would increase the probability of pollination. The birds aren't left behind. They modify their beaks to be long enough! And the interaction continues.

The more I think about this, the more intriguing it becomes. It basically would lead to questions of the kind:

Can the tree think? How else can it understand what the bird wants.
Why should it take all the trouble to reproduce. Why not just live and die away?!

The questions are not confined to the tree or the bird alone. It encompasses the entire living world. We are all the same when it comes to instincts, aren't we?

May be we all have an inherent desire to live. We must be having a purpose to accomplish, for which all the trouble we undertake are worth. How else could life be explained?


PS: Readers are requested to leave comments. A smiley would also suffice :)