How Are Colombian Hummingbirds Connected to the Plants They Feed?

Colombian researcher Mónica Ramírez Burbano turned her fascination with hummingbirds right into a undertaking to have a look at how these birds work together with the vegetation they feed on.

Ramirez, now a stay-at-home mother, started her analysis on hummingbirds and the vegetation they use as nectar sources in the one endangered location of the Andean Cloud Forest, Munchique Nationwide Park (in southwestern Colombia). endemic hummingbird species, Coloured Puffleg (Eriocnemis mirabilis), has been recognized right this moment.

“I used to be very fortunate to get lots of knowledge from the Colourful Puffleg and different lovely hummingbirds on the market, and I made a decision to gather pollen samples from their feathers and beaks (the pollen they carry once they use a nectar-seeking flower). With the concept of ​​acquiring knowledge for future analysis, hummingbirds (and probably visiting as pollen samples from vegetation I’ve seen visited by others).

Ramirez says he started his analysis by making an attempt to know what all hummingbird species use as a supply of nectar, how they share or compete, in addition to some traits of the nectar of most well-liked vegetation.

“These interactions are essential to sustaining biodiversity as a result of the vegetation hummingbirds use want visits from flowers to ensure their copy via pollination, whereas hummingbirds rely upon these vegetation for meals for survival,” he says. “It is a complicated internet. It’s extra susceptible than others to issues like local weather change, habitat loss or the lack of its companions, and in addition the place some interplay pairs and a few interplay methods are extra susceptible to human intervention than others.”

Ramirez says the fieldwork at the start of his analysis expertise was fairly difficult as a result of, though Munchique Nationwide Pure Park is a particularly lovely place, it’s harmful as a result of gunfight with guerrillas and paramilitary military. Nonetheless, he says inspecting these areas is vital.

“Understanding these methods provides ecological foundations for conservation actions, the place the interplay networks method permits us to investigate the complete system, not simply species pairs, however together with different variables that will clarify their operate and vulnerabilities,” he says.

From Small City to Little Birds

Ramirez was born and raised in Popayan, a small Andean metropolis in southwestern Colombia.

“I made a decision to change into a biologist because of a very good highschool instructor who confirmed me the enjoyable of exploring nature, mixed with my fascination with the sweetness and complexity of nature, hummingbirds and their relationship with vegetation,” he says. He was empowered when he confirmed me the paperwork from Gary Stiles, who was

Ramirez says that a number of years later, with the monetary help of his mom, he had the chance to pursue a grasp’s diploma as Gary Stiles’ thesis advisor on the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogota, the capital metropolis of Colombia.

“My advisor was the writer of articles that impressed me after I was youthful,” he says.

Ramirez accomplished her PhD in December 2019 and gave delivery to her youngster in April 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic started.

“Since then, I have been a stay-at-home mother, additionally working by myself papers and doing a little collaborations with different scientists engaged on hummingbird-plant interactions,” she says. I’m now searching for a chance for postdoctoral analysis, hopefully in a foreign country, the place my expertise and expertise might be helpful to others and the place I can be taught much more about how science is completed from different varieties of views and cultures. I hope the place extra logistics and funds can be found.”

One other Colombian scientist who research Hummingbirds is Daniela Garzon.

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In December 2020, Garzon was invited on a five-female expedition known as “BIO: wings, songs and colours”. These girls spent 4 days within the neighborhood. Fresno, Tolimahe ultimately collected 89 species, together with some endemic species and people threatened with extinction.