Apr 30, 2017
Rufous Hummingbird Female on Nest (via GlacierNPS)
NPS / Jacob W. Frank
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Rufous Hummingbird Female on Nest (via GlacierNPS)
NPS / Jacob W. Frank
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The Northern March of the Hummingbird is Fueled by Sugar Water
A recent study suggests hummingbird feeders in city parks and backyards are dramatically shifting the winter range of Anna’s hummingbirds to as far north as Alaska. From 1997 to 2013, the hummers’ winter range moved 435 miles north, according to data gathered by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project FeederWatch, a citizen science project where volunteers report which bird species are showing up at their bird feeders.
Emma Greig, manager of Project FeederWatch, says that the impetus for the study came from decades of reports hinting that the birds were expanding north. Those reports dovetailed with accounts from homeowners who maintained heated birdfeeders, who were reporting the presence of Anna’s hummingbirds even in the winter months. Hummingbirds need to gorge on sugary nectar every day to fuel their ultra-fast metabolism and typically follow the path of blooming, nectar-heavy flowers to lower, warmer elevations as winter sets in. Greig wondered if the sugar water in the hummingbird feeders had something to do with the shifting range.
“We thought, maybe people are actually facilitating the survival of these birds over winter and allowing them to persist in colder locations than they normally would,” Greig says. “Potentially, the places in the range expansion they colonized would be associated with more urban locations.”
Anna’s hummingbirds (Calypte anna) are one of the most common species of hummingbird in the American West, with a range stretching along the coast from the Mexican border to Vancouver, Canada. These iridescent green, ping-pong-ball-size birds, known for their phenomenal courtship displays, have acclimated readily to living in cities and are a common sight at backyard feeders. While the species doesn’t migrate long distances from its favored habitat in Arizona and southern California, its winter range has crept toward Alaska over the past four decades.
Allen's Hummingbird boom missed by breeding bird surveys
Allen's Hummingbird has been placed on several conservation watchlists, as breeding bird surveys indicating population declines have spurred concerns that climate change may push it out of Southern California. However, local birdwatchers have reported at the same time that the non-migratory subspecies of Allen's Hummingbird, once restricted to the Channel Islands, is now a common sight at feeders in Riverside and Los Angeles. Why the discrepancy? A new commentary published in The Condor: Ornithological Applications may provide answers.
The University of California-Riverside's Chris Clark used data from eBird, an online platform where citizen scientist birdwatchers can submit their sightings, to reexamine Allen's Hummingbird population trends in urban Southern California since 1990. He found a steep increase in the species' prevalence in eBird checklists from the region, with Allen's Hummingbirds reported in 20% of all checklists submitted from Southern California today. Because the pattern is consistent year-round, it cannot be driven by the migratory subspecies, which is only in the area for part of the year.
While it appears that urban landscaping has created new habitat and food supplies that are exploited year round by non-migratory Allen's Hummingbirds, ecological differences between the two subspecies could also be helping to drive their different trajectories. "The non-migratory Allen's Hummingbird seems to do better in parks and backyards than does the migratory subspecies," says Clark. "It also produces more offspring during the breeding season. Either of these reasons might be why the non-migratory subspecies seems to be doing so well within urban areas of the greater L.A. area."
"This commentary is an object lesson in the importance of considering all sources of data and all aspects of a species' natural history when its range and trends are modeled. As Clark emphasizes, the accuracy of such models matters when they are the basis for setting conservation priorities," according to Philip Unitt of the San Diego Natural History Museum. "The paper calls attention to the continuing dramatic increase in the range and numbers of Allen's Hummingbird, bringing into contact two subspecies differing in multiple aspects of their biology, an opportunity for study of evolution in process."
She discovered that while the t1r1 and t1r3 receptors in swifts and chickens only respond to amino acids, the same receptors in the hummingbird fire in response to sweet-tasting sugars, sugar alcohols and the artificial sweetener sucralose, but not to amino acids. Baldwin found that mutations in the hummingbirds’ T1R1 and T1R3 genes have switched them from savoury to sugar detectors. These mutations appear to be under positive selection, that is the proportion of protein-altering mutations is greater than we would expect by chance. Hummingbirds have co-opted genes that originally allowed dinosaurs to savour the taste of flesh, and transformed them into the sugar detectors most modern birds live without.
Most birds can’t taste sugar – here’s why the hummingbird can
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âž‘ a goodbye letter
Dear Miss Beryll,
I know we did not get a chance to know each other very well, but I wanted to leave you this letter.
Please, make sure that both you and Miss Amber are safe and happy...you both deserve it oh so very much. Also...please tell everyone about this letter...I only gave it to you since I didn't think you would cry over me...and the others I...I can't hurt them like this.
So please...tell them that I love them all so very much...and that...
This is goodbye...maybe we'll meet again one day...but...this is goodbye for now.
Sincerely, Nui Gurumi
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cypselomorphae replied to your post: cypselomorphae replied to your post: “Daddy, can... [beryll voice] but mr gyger is a flamingo why would your child want him as a henchman "I dunno Gyger's pretty rad I'm just not gonna question the kid" why birds
cypselomorphae replied to your post:❤ yo
fucking STAIRs….. shakes fist
no one can save you from the abyss of stairs that is the palace
❤ yo
PROS
you can bet your butt there's a really large garden where you'll probably be able to have complete access to one section and do whatever you want to it
you like biology? ash likes biology wow shared interest you're already ahead
he can understand your spanish and try and communicate yes
CONS
the birds will not summon the prince towards you
water is everywhere in pariterre everywhere
have fun with all the stairs at his home