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285 results for “hummingbirds”
Data from: Synergism, bifunctionality, and the evolution of a gradual sensory trade-off in hummingbird taste receptors
<p>Sensory receptor evolution can imply trade-offs between ligands, but the extent to which such trade-offs occur and the underlying processes shaping their evolution is not well understood. For example, hummingbirds have re-purposed their ancestral savory receptor (T1R1-T1R3) to detect sugars, but the impact of this sensory shift on amino acid perception is unclear. Here, we use functional and behavioral approaches to show that the hummingbird T1R1-T1R3 acts as a bifunctional receptor responsive to both sugars and amino acids. Our comparative analyses reveal substantial functional diversity across the hummingbird radiation and suggest an evolutionary timeline for T1R1-T1R3 re-tuning. Finally, we identify a novel form of synergism between sugars and amino acids in vertebrate taste receptors. This work uncovers an unexplored axis of sensory diversity, suggesting new ways in which nectar chemistry and pollinator preferences can coevolve.</p>
DNA barcoding reveals generalization and host overlap in hummingbird flower mites: implications for the Mating Rendezvous Hypothesis
Hummingbird flower mites are assumed to monopolize single host plant species due to sexual selection for unique mating rendezvous sites. We tested the main assumption of the Mating rendezvous hypothesis -extreme host specialization- by reconstructing interactions among tropical hummingbird flower mites and their host plants using DNA barcoding and taxonomic identifications. We collected 10,654 mites from 489 flowers. We extracted DNA from 1928 mite specimens and amplified the cytochrome c oxidase I (CO1) DNA barcode. We analyzed the network structure to assess the degree of generalization or specialization of mites to their host plants. We recorded 18 species of hummingbird flower mites from three genera (Proctolaelaps, Rhinoseius and Tropicoseius) interacting with 14 species of plants. We found that generalist mites are common, and congeneric mite species often share host plants. Our results challenge the assumption of strict specialization that supports this system as an example of mating rendezvous evolution.
Genomic insights into metabolic flux in ruby-throated hummingbirds
<p><strong>Hummingbirds employ hovering flight, displaying the highest wingbeat frequencies of any bird and sustaining the highest metabolic rates among all vertebrates. Their tissues are very well adapted to sustain efficient and rapid metabolic shifts. Hummingbirds oxidize ingested nectar sugars directly to fuel when foraging but have to switch to oxidizing stored lipids derived from ingested sugars during the night or long-distance migratory flights. The liver plays a vital role in moderating energy homeostasis and the rapid flux from glycolytic to lipogenic metabolism, demonstrated by a remarkable ability to sustain high rates of metabolism using endogenous lipids. The flight muscle must maintain rates as much as 55× greater than the maximum rates observed in any non-flying mammals for transport, uptake and oxidation of circulating sugars. Yet, understanding how this organism moderates energy turnover is hampered by a lack of information regarding how relevant enzymes differ in sequence, expression, and regulation. We generated a chromosome level de novo genome assembly of the ruby-throated hummingbird and used hybrid long and short-read sequencing methodologies for a comprehensive transcriptome assembly and annotation. </strong></p>
DNA metabarcoding reveals broadly overlapping diets in three sympatric North American hummingbirds
<p>Hummingbirds, a highly diverse avian family, are specialized vertebrate pollinators that feed upon carbohydrate-rich nectar to fuel their fast metabolism while consuming invertebrates to obtain protein. Previous work has found that morphologically diverse hummingbird communities exhibit higher diet specialization on floral resources than morphologically similar hummingbird communities. Due to the difficulties of studying avian diets, we have little understanding whether hummingbirds show similar patterns with their invertebrate prey. Here, we use DNA metabarcoding to complete an analysis of floral and invertebrate diets of three species of sympatric North American hummingbirds. We collected fecal samples from 89 Anna's (Calypte anna), 39 Black-chinned (Archilochus alexandri), and 29 Calliope (Selasphorus calliope) hummingbirds in urban and rural localities as well as across an elevational gradient from sea level to 2500 meters above sea level in California, USA. We found hummingbirds showed high dietary overlap in both invertebrate and plant resources, with few invertebrate and plant families common to most individuals and many families found in only a few individuals. Chironomidae was the most common invertebrate family across all species, and Rosaceae and Orobanchaceae were the most common plant families. Anna's Hummingbirds had significantly higher invertebrate diet diversity than Black-chinned Hummingbirds when found at the same sites, but we found no difference in plant diet diversity among any of the three species. Hummingbirds in urban sites had higher plant diet diversity than in rural sites, but we found no effect of elevation on dietary richness. Our study shows how DNA metabarcoding can be used to non-invasively investigate previously unknown life-histories of well-studied birds, lending insight to community structure, function, and evolution.</p>
Comparative data sets with measurements of tonality and frequency range in passerines and hummingbirds
<p><span>Upper vocal tract articulatory movements are a key component of vocal communication across birds and mammals. In many birds, tonal song arises from dynamically adjusted filtering of harmonic content. Many aspects of these upper vocal tract movements, such as the dynamics, motor control and relation to vocal learning, are poorly understood. Here we compare use of dynamically adjusted filter properties between vocal learners and non-learners to assess whether articulation in the upper vocal tract is linked to the increased neural substrate that evolved with vocal learning. We hypothesize that vocal learning ability is associated with enhanced ability for articulatory movements in the upper vocal tract. To test this hypothesis, we compared vocal learners and non-learners from two groups (186 passerines and 42 hummingbirds) by assessing tonality of song syllables. The data suggest that vocal learners in both clades employ more consistent broadband dynamic filter tracking than the non-learners, which contributes to the higher tonality in songs. In addition, oscine songs display higher tonality than those of hummingbirds. A complex interplay of vocal tract biomechanics, histological differences of the sound source as well as increased motor control through vocal learning facilitates more consistent generation of tonal song. </span></p>
Sexual selection for flight performance in hummingbirds data
<p><span>Among size-dimorphic animals, a few clades such as hummingbirds show 'reversed' sexual size dimorphism: females tend to be the larger sex. What selects for this pattern? Sexual selection for flight performance could drive the evolution of smaller, more agile males, either for male-male combat or female choice for aerial courtship displays. Alternately, natural selection can select for female fecundity (e.g. egg size influences female body size), or sex differences in foraging niche could favor body size differences. The sexual selection hypotheses predict that dimorphism extends to other aspects of flight morphology (e.g. flight muscle size) whereas the natural selection hypotheses predict that male and female flight morphologies are isometric, and the niche differentiation hypothesis predicts that bill dimorphism is correlated with size dimorphism. We tested these predictions through phylogenetic comparative analyses of flight morphology, wingbeat frequency, and courtship behaviors, focused on 30 species within the "bee" hummingbird clade (tribe Mellisugini). There is no correlation between bill morphology and dimorphism. Relative to females, males tend to be smaller, have proportionately shorter wings and higher hovering wingbeat frequencies, but also longer keels and larger flight muscles. Male wingbeat frequencies are greatly elevated during aerial displays, and the species with the greatest wingbeat frequencies have the greatest dimorphism. Of the four hypotheses for dimorphism, the data best support the hypothesis that female choice for courtship displays has selected for aerial agility and small size in male hummingbirds.</span></p>
FIGURE 1 in An extinct hummingbird species that never was: a cautionary tale about sampling issues in molecular phylogenetics
FIGURE 1. (A) Distributions of Aglaiocercus kingii, A. coelestis, and Taphrolesbia griseiventris (polygons), and geographic provenance of specimens of these species and of the Rogitama hybrid hummingbird included in molecular analyses (dots and star). (B) Phylogenetic relationships among species and populations of Aglaiocercus, Taphrolesbia, the Rogitama hummingbird, and Heliangelus zusii based on sequences of the ND2 gene. Black dots indicate strongly supported nodes (0.95 Bayesian posterior probability,> 80% maximum-likelihood bootstrap). The Rogitama hummingbird and H. zusii have haplotypes closely allied to those of A. kingii from the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia, indicating they are hybrids sharing A. kingii as female parent. Sister taxon, Adelomyia melanogenys, and outgroup Chalcostigma herrani, are not shown. Illustrations courtesy of Lynx Edicions (del Hoyo et al. 2018).
FIGURE 2 in An extinct hummingbird species that never was: a cautionary tale about sampling issues in molecular phylogenetics
FIGURE 2. Correlation between genetic divergence (p and Tamura-Nei distances) based on the small fragment available for Heliangelus zusii (fragment) with divergence in complete sequences (ND2 gene) across 315 hummingbird taxa (McGuire et al. 2014 dataset). Genetic distances were calculated in MEGA6 (Tamura et al. 2013) and all positions with missing data were not considered when calculating pairwise genetic distances. The plot is cropped at 10% p-distance, thus providing a better view of the data spread in the area of low divergence relevant to the H. zusii issue. The correlation between the small fragment available for H. zusii and all the ND2 data is strong, and it is especially tight near the origin: 0% divergence in that small fragment essentially means no (or up to approximately 1%) divergence in the rest of the sequence. This suggests that our observation of identical sequences in H. zusii and A. kingii is not an artifact resulting from the small amount of available sequence data.
Fig. 3 in From clustering to overdispersion: a north to south gradient in the patterns of phylogenetic structure in North American hummingbird assemblages
Fig. 3 Boxplots of MPD, MNTD, pMPD, and pMNTD between breeding and winter seasons by biogeographic region
Fig. 2 in From clustering to overdispersion: a north to south gradient in the patterns of phylogenetic structure in North American hummingbird assemblages
Fig. 2 Geographic patterns of phylogenetic and phenotypic MPDs and MNTDs across North America according to seasons considered (breeding and winter)
Fig. 1 in From clustering to overdispersion: a north to south gradient in the patterns of phylogenetic structure in North American hummingbird assemblages
Fig. 1 Phylogenetic heatmap of the pruned phylogenetic tree (see Methods) based on McGuire et al. (2014) for North American hummingbird species and the matrix of the PC from phylogenetic PCA scores. Colors indicate standard deviation (SD) values for each PC axis by species
Data from: Pollen analogues are transported across greater distances in bee-pollinated than in hummingbird-pollinated species of Justicia (Acanthaceae)
Several hummingbird-pollinated plant lineages have been demonstrated to show increased rates of diversification compared to related insect-pollinated lineages. It has been argued that this pattern is produced by a higher degree of specialization on part of both hummingbirds and plants. We here test an alternative hypothesis: The often highly territorial hummingbirds may on average carry pollen over shorter distances than other pollinators and drive diversification by reducing gene flow distances. We present experimental data from pollen analogue tracking showing shorter dispersal distances in hummingbird- than in bee-pollinated species among ten neotropical species of Justicia (Acanthaceae).
Data from: Influence of plant-pollinator interactions on the assembly of plant and hummingbird communities
Understanding how ecological processes structure species assemblages is a central issue in community ecology. While the influence of plant–pollinator interactions on each other's evolution is well recognized, their role in the assembly of interdependent communities of plants and pollinators is still unclear. Using data from seven communities of hummingbirds and plants that they pollinate from two tropical rain forest types (lowland and montane), we evaluated phylogenetic relationships and signal of functional traits, over space and time, to test predictions on the main processes (environmental filtering, facilitation or competition) that are driving these hummingbird–plant assemblages. Our findings suggest that the main processes driving these assemblages varied between hummingbirds and plants and between habitats, and even among communities at the same habitat. The non-conserved floral trait and the phylogenetic patterns (even or random) give support to the hypothesis of facilitation or competition as processes regulating the composition of plant assemblages. Moreover, the positive relationship between fitness and flowering synchrony suggests facilitation as the most important mechanism for montane plant communities. Distinctively, for lowland plant communities, the combination of non-conserved traits and clustered phylogenetic patterns may be a result of either adaptive radiation or biotic filtering driven by a particular pollinator species that plays a main role as plant community organizer. Lastly, evidence of trait conservatism, together with clustered or even phylogenetic patterns, suggests that facilitation or competition may drive the assembly of montane hummingbird communities, despite the predominance of random phylogenetic patterns. Synthesis. Overall, we present a pathway to identify central ecological processes that may drive the assembly of plant–pollinator communities. We show that different processes related with pollination that vary in space and time may contribute to the assembly of the interdependent tropical communities of plants and pollinators. These findings highlight the importance of considering ecological interactions when evaluating community assembly processes.
Data from: Avoiding topsy-turvy: how Anna's Hummingbirds (Calypte anna) fly through upward gusts
Flying organisms frequently confront the challenge of maintaining stability when moving within highly dynamic airflows near the Earth's surface. Either aerodynamic or inertial forces generated by appendages and other structures, such as the tail, may be used to offset aerial perturbations, but these responses have not been well characterized. To better understand how hummingbirds modify wing and tail motions in response to individual gusts, we filmed Anna's Hummingbirds as they negotiated an upward jet of fast moving air. Birds exhibited large variation in wing elevation, tail pitch, and tail fan angles among transits as they repeatedly negotiated the same gust, and often exhibited a dramatic decrease in body angle (28 ± 6 degrees) post-transit. After extracting three-dimensional kinematic features, we identified a spectrum of control strategies for gust transit, with one extreme involving continuous flapping, no tail fanning, and little disruption to body posture (23 ± 3 degrees downward pitch), and the other extreme characterized by dorsal wing pausing, tail fanning, and greater downward body pitch (38 ± 4 degrees). The use of a deflectable tail on a glider model transiting the same gust resulted in enhanced stability and can easily be implemented in design of aerial robots.
Replaced feathers, degree of bill corrugation, and bill coloration in 19 Central American hummingbird species
<p>We document molt extent; age-specific molt patterns, plumages, and percent of the bill with corrugations; the presence or absence of delayed plumage maturation and bill color changes in males of some species; and molt timing in the 19 resident hummingbird species of Belize. Molt strategies and rates of bill smoothing were similar to North American species, with all species showing limited to partial preformative molts, replacing only body feathers and some wing coverts and retaining all remiges and rectrices. Extent of bill corrugations reduced to ≤10% of bill length in all species by the time definitive cycle basic plumage is achieved. Males in sexually dichromatic species showed delayed maturation in plumage characteristics and/or bill coloration, and in two dichromatic species, some older females showed male-like plumage. Nine species representing multiple clades showed advanced timing to the second prebasic molt, indicating that this trait may be a proximal response to individuals not breeding during the first molt cycle. Species with advanced second prebasic molts replaced fewer wing coverts during the preformative molt than species with later molt timing.</p>
Data from: Burst muscle performance predicts the speed, acceleration, and turning performance of Anna's hummingbirds
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Data from: The distributions of morphologically specialized hummingbirds coincide with floral trait matching across an Andean elevational gradient
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Data from: Functional connectivity experiments reflect routine movement behavior of a tropical hummingbird species
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Data from: Historical and current introgression in a Mesoamerican hummingbird species complex: a biogeographic perspective
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Data from: The role of the endemic and critically endangered Colorful Puffleg Eriocnemis mirabilis in plant-hummingbird networks of the Colombian Andes
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Allen Brain Atlas
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