In North America, most of the pollinators are insects like bees, butterflies and beetles, or vertebrates like hummingbirds and bats. The animal pollinators carry the pollen in different ways. Vertebrate pollinators like birds or bats carry pollen in their feathers or hair. Honeybees have tiny baskets on their legs for carrying pollen back to the hive. When butterflies use their long proboscis , or nectar-gathering appendage, to sip nectar from tubular flowers, they get peppered involuntarily with pollen on the proboscis or the head.
Plants use various techniques to attract their particular animal partners.
Flowers are actually cleverly designed reproductive organs that incorporate all kinds of lures. The petals, for example, may serve as a landing platform for a visiting insect. When a bee lands on the lower petal of a snapdragon, its weight causes a stamen to swing down and dust the bee with pollen. Petals of many plant species even have lines or other marks that guide the pollinator to the nectar. Another type of lure is aroma.