News

Where Have All The Hummingbirds Gone?

07.06.2012

The glacier lily, as it is called, is a tall, willowy plant that graces mountain meadows throughout western North America. It flowers early in spring, when the first bumblebees and hummingbirds appear. But the glacier lily is fast becoming a hothouse flower. In Earth’s warming temperatures, its first blooms appear some 17 days earlier than they did in the 1970s, scientists David Inouye and Amy McKinney of the University of Maryland and colleagues have found. According to the biologists, the problem with the earlier timing of these first blooms, is that the glacier lily is no longer synchronized with the arrival of broad-tailed hummingbirds, which in turn depend on glacier lilies for nectar. The birds have only a short mountain summer to raise their young. The biologists calculate that if current trends continue, in two decades the hummingbirds will miss the first flowers entirely, putting at risk hummingbirds reproductive styles.

Photo (c) Chuck Roberts / Flickr