Ecuadorian Hummingbirds Chirp Only for their Species

Varieties

July 21st, 6:05am

Cairo - Hazem Bader

This 2018 photo provided by Paolo David Escobar shows a male Hillstar hummingbird perched on a Chuquiraga jussieui flower in Ecuador. (AP)

Scientists from the Universities of Georgia and California in the United States found that small Ecuadorian hummingbird known as Hillstar can sing and hear in pitches beyond the known range of other birds. The auditory communication is a fundamental factor in diverse social contexts like marriage and aid calls. The efficacy of audio signals depends on the ability of the receiver to detect and differentiate them. During the study, the scientists found that the male hummingbird's ballad is sung at around 13.4 kilohertz, and that's considered ultrasonic for birds, which generally can't hear above 9 or 10 kilohertz. The study was published Saturday in the Science Advances journal. For the study, scientists climbed into the Ecuadorian Andes to reach high grasslands and locate the Hillstars' breeding grounds. There, they recorded the males singing, then played back their romantic ballads to test the reactions of other birds. Other Hillstars craned their necks and turned toward the speaker as it played the high-pitched chirps; one also flew over the speaker to inspect it. In the lab, the scientists verified that the part of the brain typically engaged in auditory communication had been activated while hearing the high-frequency tones. In a report published by The Associated Press, co-author Marco Monteros said: "We believe the birds may have evolved to sing at high pitches so that their love songs wouldn't compete with background noises in their environment, such as mountain winds, streams and the songs of other birds." In the same report, Timothy Wright, a behavioral ecologist at New Mexico State University, said: "For some hummingbirds, it's like a private channel of communication; other bird species don't use these high-frequency sounds." "Something very interesting is going on in the ears of these hummingbirds to allow them to hear such sounds," said Christopher Clark, a biologist at the University of California, who was not involved in the study.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2402176/ecuadorian-hummingbirds-chirp-only-their-species