Hummingbirds are small and delicate, but don't be fooled. They are the most aggressive birds of the birds. Their territorial rage is particularly targeted at other hummingbirds. Competition for flowers and companion patches often results in high-speed aviation pursuits, dive bombing, and horse-mounted beaks.
So when ornithologist and birdwatching guide Gustavo Canyas Barre stumbled upon a cave filled with roost hummingbirds together in the High Andes of Ecuador, he was almost convinced of it. Not there.
“This looks like a colony,” I thought,” Kanyas Barre said. He added, “They were like bees.”
He recorded 23 adult birds and four chicks. This documented all of the subspecies of oleotrotilscimborazo, commonly known as the Chimborazo hilstar.
Cañas-Valle's findings, described in the November journal Ornithology, may be the first documented example of a jointly nested and roost hummingbird. It is also worth noting that he found a bird involved in both these actions in the same space.
Juan Luis Bouza, another author of the study, an evolutionary geneticist at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and former graduate advisor to Canyasval, said that the findings allow environmental factors to play in group life. sue fascinating questions about the role and promote the evolution of specific social traits.
Dr. Bouzat and Cañas-Valle first hypothesized that harsh environmental conditions along the Chimboraz volcano discovered that the nests forced birds. Birds live on sea levels above sea level at 12,000 feet above sea level on sparsely vegetated slopes that provide nectar from frozen temperatures and chewing winds, which are difficult to come to flowers, water, or shelter, which provide nectar from.
“You either collect or die,” Dr. Bouzat said.
But this may not be a complete story. Cañas-Valle explored the area and found six other examples of hummingbirds nest together and roost. He and Dr. Bouzat investigated concrete drains scattered throughout the area. The pipe had similar environmental conditions to caves, but could only fit one or two nests. Researchers found that only 45% of the pipes are occupied by nesting women, according to computer simulations conducted by the authors.
On the other hand, the nests were seen larger in the group than if they were randomly predicted. Of the total 74 nests of Cañas-Valle recorded, 82% were part of the group. Taken together, these findings imply that birds are more aggressive in choosing groups than nest alone.
Dr. Bouzat suspects that environmental factors have inherently consolidated the birds, but when they bundle together, they evolve traits that help them make them more social and adapt to the environment. Ta.
Scott Robinson, an ornithologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History, who is not involved in the work, said: “No one would have considered the hummingbird as a colony candidate.”
Charles Brown, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Tulsa, said he was not involved in the study, but was not convinced that the hummingbirds observed in the study were actually recognized as colonial.
Animals living in true colonies often act in ways that benefit their neighbors, Dr. Brown said they will act, including working together to find food and detect predators. . Finding hummingbirds nearby was interesting, but “there was no evidence of social behavior on the side of the animals nesting in these clusters,” he said.
However, Cañas-Valle observed the hummingbirds leaving the cave and returning with them, noting that they suggested a cohesive social group. “Not each of us does our own thing,” Dr. Bouzat said.
However, the authors agree that more research is needed. They want to conduct behavioral studies to determine whether hummingbirds simply endure each other or are actively collaborating.
They also want to conduct research on other hummingbird species in similar high Andean environments to see if they are engaged in group life. “I am sure there are other unknown caves in the mountains where hummingbirds live,” Cañas-Valle said. “We certainly hope to find other species.”
