Bird Feeders Have Caused a Dramatic Evolution of California Hummingbirds

Science magazine reports that hummingbird feeders "have become a major evolutionary force," according to research published this week in Global Change Biology. (At least for the Anna's hummingbird, a common species in the western U.S. Over just a few generations, their beaks have dramatically changed in size and shape.... [A]s feeders proliferated, Anna's hummingbird beaks got longer and larger, which may reflect an adaptation to slurp up far more nectar than flowers can naturally provide. Developing a bigger beak to access feeders "is like having a large spoon to eat with," says senior author Alejandro Rico-Guevara, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Washington. This change was more pronounced in areas where feeders were dense. But in birds that lived in colder regions north of the species' historical range, the researchers spotted the opposite trend: Their beaks became shorter and smaller. This finding also makes sense: The researchers used an infrared camera to show for the first time that hummingbirds use their beaks to thermoregulate, by dissipating heat while they are perched. A smaller beak has less surface area — and would therefore help conserve heat...

The most surprising finding, though, was how quickly these changes took place. By the 1950s, hummingbirds were noticeably different from those of the 1930s: a time span of only about 10 generations of birds, Alexandre says.
Carleton University animal behaviorist Roslyn Dakin (who wasn't involved with the study) says the new paper beautifully shows "evolution in action" — and adds nuance to our conception of humans as an evolutionary force. "I think we're going to find more and more examples of contemporary and subtle changes, that we're shaping, indirectly, in many more species."

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader sciencehabit for sharing the article.

Re:

[Kernel Kurtz]

The implication is there.

Re:

[taustin]

Hummingbird feeders are caused by global warming?

Re:

[Kernel Kurtz]

Beak are apparently used to thermoregulate. Read into it what you will.

Re:

[Ol Olsoc]

Hummingbird feeders are caused by global warming?

Non-sequitur of the month.

Deer wandering cities

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not just the birds.

We have lots of deer wandering through our city, which sets next to a huge expanse of national forest.

Occasionally mountain lions will come in, but for the most part they are very cautious about entering the city. Same with bears. There are bobcats but the deer travel in herds and bobcats will only go after very small deer that are unprotected.

So the deer have learned the city is relatively safe for them. Our deer are smart when it comes to cars, and have learned not to run in fro

OT: Manual sig Re: Deer wandering cities

[davidwr]

Can I do a manual sig: I am a nonviolent antinatalist seeking by words and example alone to persuade you all not to have kids?

If this was what you intended to write, your manual sig attempt succeeded. If not, then proceed to troubleshoot it.

Re:

[OrangeTide]

Humanity doesn't have to be a cancer, we simply choose to be.

Re:

[alvinrod]

Humans are the only species on the planet that ponders its own impact on the planet at all. Do you think fire ants would stop and ponder if expanding their range would be good for local ecosystems or try to curtail their deleterious behavior at all? Nothing else has the cognitive ability to even consider it. All of life is essentially cancerous in that it will spread as much as it can and is only kept in check by other lifeforms and the environment containing it.

People who think life is a disease or a mi

Re:

[olsmeister]

Holy shit, do I feel your pain. It's ridiculous here as well in Michigan. It didn't used to be this way. And there's not a lot you can do about it. You firearms cannot be legally used within city limits. Predators stay out of town. Poison is illegal. They do a crossbow hunt every fall, but it only takes a few dozen deer, not enough to make any real difference. I cannot have plants outside anymore, everything seems to be fair game.

A couple of things you didn't mention is that my yard is now a minefi

Re: Deer wandering cities

[Viol8]

Here in the UK all the big predators have gone and so the feral deer stay in the countryside but like where you are they eat everything. No young trees are safe and they effectively Hoover the forest floors. Also some farmers crops are fair game too.

Re:

[olsmeister]

I guess if you live in town, the only real answer if you enjoy horticulture is going to be to fence in your property. It's too bad, I'm not a big fan of fences.

Re: Deer wandering cities

[blue trane]

Why do you want to control plants so much that you are willing to use climate change as an excuse?

Re:

[RossCWilliams]

That isn't evolution, that is capitalism at work. There is money to be made from deer hunting. So the departments of natural resources explicitly manage deer herds to best sustain herd size for hunters. In many places, people purposely manage land to attract deer by planting food crops for them.

In Minnesota, deer collisions with cars do hundreds of millions of dollars of damage every year. But the sizes of the herds along major transportation routes are managed for hunting. If wolves take a cow, the DNR pa

Re:

[OrangeTide]

Ideal herd size is about 1/3 where it's at today in any of the Great Lakes states. And for revenue, the DNR ought to double the price for buck tags and halve the price for doe tags. Healthy bucks that survive because of their fitness instead of bad luck running into a hunter, fewer does means lower deer population, and less TB, etc. Hunters have not had problems finding deer for decades now, most people are able to use all the tags they get.

Farmers where I grew up used to take deer all the time, in some (mo

Re: Deer wandering cities

[blue trane]

Don't we overproduce hay, corn, soy and ship it overseas? How much of the deer problem is really a you problem?

Training Humans

[bill_mcgonigle]

Each Spring when I'm outside a female will buzz up to me and dart around me for a bit until I go grab the feeder and fill it up.

Not aggressively but they'll remind me too if I'm busy and am outside another day.

Impressively they return to their same summer areas each year with amazing precision. Usually when the tulips bloom so I keep an eye out once the daffodils are done.

Re: Training Humans

[blue trane]

Ever seen them year after year at a remote campsite, still curious but not asking you to feed them?

Re:

[eriks]

Yes! I've been approached by hummingbirds in the wilderness on more than one occasion. I also feed them, and have experienced the "Hi! we're here!" buzz when they first arrive, even though I usually have the feeders out several days before they arrive by monitoring the hummingbird migration map, but they are curious and seemingly interested in us for reasons other than sugar water. I usually get a "See you next year!" buzz before they leave in September too. I've observed them observing me while gardeni

Re:

[techno-vampire]

A friend of mine, the late Dr. Pournelle, lived in Los Angeles, and had several Humming Bird feeders plus an Oriole feeder at his home. He told me, once, that sometimes a hummer, usually male, would claim ownership of one of the feeders and try to chase all of the other hummers away, with mixed success. Once, one of them tried to claim the Oriole feeder but the orioles, being much bigger, just ignored him.

Re: Training Humans

[blue trane]

Does it seem like each bird has a unique personality? Why are they so much better personalities than most hu-mans?

Re:

[alvinrod]

Birds are generally quite intelligent for their size, but people often anthropomorphize that to a greater extent than may exist. If you spend enough time around anything you'll start to notice the differences that exist between individuals of whatever group that may be. Calling it personality is just using a familiar word to describe it. I doubt birds consider their own "personality" or how they might improve upon it. You on the other hand could endeavor to be less of an asshole.

uh, yeah

[algaeman]

contemporary and subtle changes, that we're shaping, indirectly, in many more species

We are the sixth mass extinction event

Trickle down effect..?

[Vegan Cyclist]

Wonder how this trickles down - okay, so we know hummingbirds are changing, but what does that mean for the plant/flower species that evolved along with them, and originally lead to their beaks being that way?

Curious what's going to happen to those plants (presumably the hummingbirds won't be able to feed and pollinate them as they had), and what's down the line from that?

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Curious what's going to happen to those plants (presumably the hummingbirds won't be able to feed and pollinate them as they had)

Why would their beak becoming longer prevent them from putting it into a flower?

10 generations

[pz]

An evolutionary change from selective pressure becoming evident over 10 generations seems to be a recurring theme. The silver fox, for example, was domesticated in about 10 generations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[Woeful Countenance]

The silver fox, for example, was domesticated in about 10 generations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

Belyayev's foxes. I have a book about that: How to Tame a Fox (And Build a Dog), by Lee Alan Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut. Belyayev was interested in Darwinian natural selection but had to work in secret, because Lysenkoism was the official policy of Stalin. (Obviously, everybody now knows that governments can't dictate biology ... right? Right?)

Coincidentally, Belyayev worked at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk, recently identified as the home of the "ringleaders of the DanaBot conspir

The males can be extremely territorial too

[sinkskinkshrieks]

At my mom's old house near Chico, a male would only let females drink while chasing off all of the males.