Hummingbirds

[ysabetwordsmith]

Backyard feeders changed the shape of hummingbird beaks, scientists say

According to a recent study in Global Change Biology, a journal focused on environmental change, the use and prevalence of hummingbird feeders — like those red and clear plastic ones filled with homemade sugar water — changed the size and shape of the birds' beaks. The range of the hummingbird also spread from the southern part of California all the way up the West coast into Canada.

"Very simplified, the bills get longer and they become more slender, and that helps to have a larger tongue inside that can get more nectar from the feeder at a time," says Alejandro Rico-Guevara, a professor of biology at the University of Washington and senior author on the study.

Comments

[trepkos]

That sounds like a retrograde occurrence ... can they still feed from actual flowers with these different bills/tongues?

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I didn't see a reference to that, but I would expect that they can.

Bear in mind that hummingbird flowers come in a variety of shapes and sizes, so hummingbirds as a group have adapted to different ones. Different species have bills that are longer or shorter, wider or narrower, etc. to suit the flowers in their locale. They can adapt to utilize new sources, like they've done here.