Energetics of Foraging: Rate and Efficiency of Nectar Extraction by Hummingbirds
- 23 June 1972
- journal article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 176 (4041), 1351-1352
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.176.4041.1351
Abstract
The efficiency with which several species of hummingbirds extract nectar was estimated by converting the rate of extraction of nectar volumes to the energy expended and the energy obtained from the nectar. The extraction rates depend on corolla and bill morphologies, and the extraction efficiencies depend, in addition, on the bird weight and nectar concentration. Differential extraction efficiencies can be exploited by plants to increase pollinator specificity.Keywords
This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:
- Power for Hovering Flight in Relation to Body Size in HummingbirdsThe American Naturalist, 1972
- Time and Energy Budgets of Territorial HummingbirdsEcology, 1971
- Feeding Ecology of the Red‐eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) and Associated Foliage‐Gleaning BirdsEcological Monographs, 1971
- Competition for Pollinators between Simultaneously Flowering SpeciesThe American Naturalist, 1970
- Energetic cost of locomotion in animalsComparative Biochemistry and Physiology, 1970
- Population Ecology of Desert Rodent Communities: Body Size and Seed‐Husking as Bases for Heteromyid CoexistenceEcology, 1970
- Optimal Choice in AnimalsThe American Naturalist, 1968
- The Niche Exploitation Pattern of the Blue‐Gray GnatcatcherEcological Monographs, 1967
- On Optimal Use of a Patchy EnvironmentThe American Naturalist, 1966
- TYPES OF NECTAR IN ANGIOSPERMSNew Phytologist, 1961