Hummingbirds and Heliconia
Photo by Geoffery Giller (2009)
My current science work is my thesis on floral divergence, as driven by hummingbirds. Ethan Temeles, a professor at Amherst College and a contributor to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, is my adviser, and has been working with these hummingbirds and flowers for over a decade.
The birds (Purple-Throated Carib Hummingbirds) live on the island of Dominica, in the southeastern corner of the Caribbean. The males feed on the flowers of Heliconia caribea, while females (as seen on the left) feed on the flowers of Heliconia behai, and the yellow morph of H. caribea. Because the male and female hummingbirds have radically different bill lengths and shapes, this feeding pattern is driving the red and yellow flowers to become different species. Charles Darwin had predicted this sort of process 150 years ago, but lacked the tools to prove it.
The birds (Purple-Throated Carib Hummingbirds) live on the island of Dominica, in the southeastern corner of the Caribbean. The males feed on the flowers of Heliconia caribea, while females (as seen on the left) feed on the flowers of Heliconia behai, and the yellow morph of H. caribea. Because the male and female hummingbirds have radically different bill lengths and shapes, this feeding pattern is driving the red and yellow flowers to become different species. Charles Darwin had predicted this sort of process 150 years ago, but lacked the tools to prove it.
