Hummingbirds are tiny and delicate creatures, but don’t let their size fool you. They are fierce, especially when it comes to defending their territory. These little warriors are known for aggressive behaviors like high-speed chases and beak jousting with other hummingbirds over food or mates. It’s surprising, then, that Gustavo Cañas-Valle, an ornithologist, discovered a cave in Ecuador’s High Andes where these birds were nesting and roosting together.
When he found it, he was astonished. “It looked like a colony,” he remarked. He observed 23 adult Chimborazo hillstars and four chicks, a species called Oreotrochilus chimborazo chimborazo.
This discovery, shared in the journal Ornithology, could be the first documented case of hummingbirds nesting and roosting together. What’s even more interesting is that they engaged in both activities in the same space, a behavior rarely seen even among other bird species that are more social.
Juan Luis Bouzat, an evolutionary geneticist and co-author of the study, had some intriguing thoughts on why these hummingbirds might live this way. He and Cañas-Valle initially believed that the harsh conditions on the Chimborazo volcano—over 12,000 feet above sea level with limited food, water, and shelter—had forced the birds to band together.
The environment up there is tough. It’s a sparse landscape, which makes finding nectar-rich flowers difficult. This communal nesting likely helps the birds survive better in such a challenging habitat.
Check out this related article: Exploring the Fascinating Rise of the Purple Earth Hypothesis in Modern Science
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