{"id":22252,"date":"2025-02-14T09:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T10:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22252"},"modified":"2025-02-14T10:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T10:34:07","slug":"hummingbirds-living-in-a-hive-found-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22252","title":{"rendered":"Hummingbirds Living in a Hive Found for the First Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

In a remote mountain cave in Ecuador, hummingbirds were discovered sleeping and nesting together.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Hummingbirds are tiny and delicate, but don\u2019t be fooled: They are among the most aggressive birds<\/a> in the avian kingdom. Their territorial fury is especially aimed at other hummingbirds. Competition over a patch of flowers or a mate often results in high-speed aerial chases, divebombing and beak jousting.<\/p>\n

So when Gustavo Ca\u00f1as-Valle, an ornithologist and birding guide, stumbled across a cave full of hummingbirds nesting and roosting together in Ecuador\u2019s High Andes, he could hardly believe it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018This looks like a colony,\u2019\u201d Mr. Ca\u00f1as-Valle said. He added, \u201cThey were like bees<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

He documented 23 adult birds and four chicks,all of the subspecies Oreotrochilus chimborazo chimborazo, commonly known as the Chimborazo hillstar.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ca\u00f1as-Valle\u2019s discovery, described<\/a> in the journal Ornithology in November, may be the first documented example of hummingbirds that nested and roosted communally. It is also notable that he found the birds engaging in both these behaviors in the same space \u2014 something that even highly social species from other bird families tend not to do.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Juan Luis Bouzat, an evolutionary geneticist at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and another author of the study who is also Mr. Ca\u00f1as-Valle\u2019s former graduate adviser, said the finding raised fascinating questions about the role environmental factors can play in driving group living and in promoting the evolution of certain social traits.<\/p>\n

Dr. Bouzat and Mr. Ca\u00f1as-Valle at first hypothesized that harsh environmental conditions along the Chimborazo volcano where they found the nests had forced the birds together. The birds live more than 12,000 feet above sea level on a sparsely vegetated slope where it is hard to come by nectar-providing flowers, water or shelter from freezing temperatures and biting winds.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a remote mountain cave in Ecuador, hummingbirds were discovered sleeping and nesting together.Hummingbirds are tiny and delicate, but don\u2019t be fooled: They are among the most aggressive birds in the avian kingdom. Their territorial fury is especially aimed at other hummingbirds. Competition over a patch of flowers or a mate often results in high-speed aerial chases, divebombing and beak jousting.So when Gustavo Ca\u00f1as-Valle, an ornithologist and birding guide, stumbled across a cave full of hummingbirds nesting and roosting together in Ecuador\u2019s High Andes, he could hardly believe it.\u201cI thought, \u2018This looks like a colony,\u2019\u201d Mr. Ca\u00f1as-Valle said. He added, \u201cThey were like bees.\u201dHe documented 23 adult birds and four chicks,all of the subspecies Oreotrochilus chimborazo chimborazo, commonly known as the Chimborazo hillstar.Mr. Ca\u00f1as-Valle\u2019s discovery, described in the journal Ornithology in November, may be the first documented example of hummingbirds that nested and roosted communally. It is also notable that he found the birds engaging in both these behaviors in the same space \u2014 something that even highly social species from other bird families tend not to do.Juan Luis Bouzat, an evolutionary geneticist at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and another author of the study who is also Mr. Ca\u00f1as-Valle\u2019s former graduate adviser, said the finding raised fascinating questions about the role environmental factors can play in driving group living and in promoting the evolution of certain social traits.Dr. Bouzat and Mr. Ca\u00f1as-Valle at first hypothesized that harsh environmental conditions along the Chimborazo volcano where they found the nests had forced the birds together. The birds live more than 12,000 feet above sea level on a sparsely vegetated slope where it is hard to come by nectar-providing flowers, water or shelter from freezing temperatures and biting winds.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22254,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22252"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22255,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22252\/revisions\/22255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}