Male hummingbirds drive female birds away from their preferred yellow-flowered plant, which may have implications for flower diversification, according a study published Jan. 27, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Ethan Temeles from Amherst College, USA, and colleagues.
Scientists suggest that competition between two different pollinators for the same flower species could drive the plant to evolve into multiple forms. To understand one potential mechanism behind this theory, Temeles and colleagues examined purple-throated carib hummingbirds’ behavior and preference when pollinating red or yellow ‘lobster claw’ plants, a tropical flower species. In an enclosed outdoor garden, the lobster claw flowers were outfitted with a pollen-like fluorescent dye and researchers counted the dye particles transferred to different lobster claw plants by male and female birds alone and in completion.
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Ethan Temeles notes that these experiments “demonstrate that competition between two different kinds of hummingbirds can result in resource partitioning and natural selection for divergence in flowering plants.”