A new species of high-altitude hummingbird may already be in trouble

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HIGH FLIER The newly discovered blue-throated Hillstar hummingbird can survive harsh conditions in the Ecuadorian Andes, thanks to its adaptations for high altitude.

A new hummingbird species has been discovered high in the Ecuadorian Andes, but in numbers so low the bird may already be critically endangered.

Named for its cobalt-colored feathers, the blue-throated hillstar hummingbird nibbles on insects and slurps pollen from chuquiraga plants in a remote, treeless ecosystem known as the Páramo. Like other high-altitude hummingbirds from the same genus, the newly identified Oreotrochilus cyanolaemus has a host of adaptations to live above 3,500 meters, where the air is thinner, colder and oxygen-poor, researchers report September 26 in The Auk: Ornithological Advances.

“We weren't expecting a new [species] from this area,” says evolutionary biologist Elisa Bonaccorso of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador.

The hummingbirds often perch in creek beds to avoid winds gusting across the shrubby highlands, the researchers say. To conserve energy, the birds rarely hover. Instead, their large feet grasp branches as they hop between flowers.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-species-high-altitude-hummingbird-may-already-be-trouble

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