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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 chan...
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. 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. 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.
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