Treating hummingbirds as feathered bees : a case of ethological cross-pollination
Date
12/2017Keywords
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Abstract
Hummingbirds feed from hundreds of flowers every day. The properties of these flowers provide these birds with a wealth of information about colour, space and time to guide how they forage. To understand how hummingbirds might use this information, researchers have adapted established laboratory paradigms for use in the field. In recent years, however, experimental inspiration has come less from other birds, and more from looking at other nectar-feeders, particularly honeybees and bumblebees, which have been models for foraging behaviour and cognition for over a century. In a world in which the cognitive abilities of bees regularly make the news, research on the influence of ecology and sensory systems on bee behaviour is leading to novel insights in hummingbird cognition. As methods designed to study insects in the laboratory are being applied to hummingbirds in the field, converging methods can help us identify and understand convergence in cognition, behaviour and ecology.
Citation
Pritchard , D J , Tello Ramos , M C , Muth , F & Healy , S D 2017 , ' Treating hummingbirds as feathered bees : a case of ethological cross-pollination ' , Biology Letters , vol. 13 , no. 12 , 20170610 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0610
Publication
Biology Letters
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1744-9561Type
Journal item
Rights
© 2017, the Author(s). Published by the Royal Society. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0610
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