Papers by Lesly Talamantes
The hermit hummingbirds (Trochilidae, Phaethorninae) interact strongly with the owers of certain... more The hermit hummingbirds (Trochilidae, Phaethorninae) interact strongly with the owers of certain families of plants of which they are the principal pollinators, a relation determined principally by the mutual adjustment of bill and corolla morphologies. This study identied and characterized morphologically the species of hermit hummingbirds and their oral resources in tierra rme forest of Colombian Amazonia. Seven species of hermits were recorded by direct observations and mist-net captures and were classied into three groups by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of morphological variables: 1) large, curve-billed species (Phaethornis malaris, P. hispidus, Threnetes leucurus, Glaucis hirsuta), 2) the medium-sized, straight-billed P. bourcieri and 3) the small P. ruber and P. atrimentalis. Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) of morphological measurements and ecological information resulted in uniting P. bourcieri with the former group and demonstrated a strong correlation between bill length and number of species of owers visited. Marked sexual dimorphism exists in the hermit species in bill morphology, wing length, tail length and body mass, but we did not detect any marked effect upon ower visitation. 46 species of plants were visited by hermit hummingbirds, eight of which were identied by visual observations, 28 by pollen loads and ten by both methods, indicating the importance of using both methods. The families with most species visited were Heliconiaceae, Rubiaceae, Gesneriaceae, Acanthaceae and Costaceae. Combining the results obtained by PCA and Metric Multidimensional Scaling Analysis for the morphological variables of the plants, seven ecomorphological groups were distinguished. The large and medium hermits (group 1) visited ve of these groups of plants and the small hermits (group 2) visited plants of the remaining two groups. However, the ACC failed to show any correlation between the morphological attributes of the plants and owers with numbers of species of visiting hermits, probably because each group of hermits visited owers of plants with varied morphologies; other types of ecological variables should be investigated for this type of analysis. This hermit hummingbird-ower community was characterized by high morphological diversity and by the clear separation of the species into groups with similar morphologies. The results also demonstrated the strong relation that exists between morphology and ecology in the hummingbird-ower interaction. The morphological attributes of both the hermit hummingbirds and their nectar resources determined in large part the visitation patterns of the birds to their owers. Also, other factors like resource availability, habitat diversity and movements between habitats,modied the foraging behavior of the hermit hummingbirds.
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Papers by Lesly Talamantes