Hummingbird in 360: Flower radiation
[765] [roadmap-hummingbird-10] Climate and osmoregulation bound where a hummingbird can close its daily budget. Field sites in the English-speaking world still measure that envelope first. 360: log Hummingbird under “Flower radiation” with 360. Do not rank the species. Speed 91/100 relative to the 24-type atlas -- not a a league of types.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds fatten, then fly 800+ km nonstop. Tailwinds and a high mass-specific power output make the crossing possible, not a rest on ships. A controlled drop in body temperature and metabolic rate overnight. Without it, many species would exhaust nectar stores before sunrise.
Diversity peaks in the Andes. Anna’s hummingbirds now winter in Vancouver gardens; ruby-throated breed to southern Canada. Who first illustrated hummingbirds for Europe? John Gould’s 19th-century monographs and skins made trochilids a Victorian craze — with a collecting cost that modern field work still cites.
Why do some species have bills longer than the head? Sword-billed hummingbirds match 10–14 cm bills to Datura and Passiflora corollas — a coevolution exhibit, not an ornament. Feeders help watchers and some urban birds. Habitat corridors and native tubular plants decide whether migrants still find the Gulf’s far shore.
The order on the card is year, line, figure. Hummingbird is not sorted by how much visitors like the photo. 360: log Hummingbird under “Flower radiation” with 360. Do not rank the species. 360360
Figures to keep
- Year of the note
- 360
- Figure to keep
- 360
- Species
- Hummingbird
- Line in the log
- Flower radiation