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How's their A1C changing too?

Me too. I’ve never had a feeder & always had hummingbirds. I do use Miracle Gro, though. 🤔

So making them dependent, addicted? Do they not hit flowers as much too?

Wow!

Hey, I’d do anything for sugar too! 🤣

Mother Nature.🌹🌏 Even after man has destroyed their livable space, Mother Nature will adapt and survive. Man doesn't deserve Earth.

The framing of this sounds more Lamarck than Darwin.

Anna's Hummingbirds: the only species that apparently realized the nose job could be a strategic move. Meanwhile, humans are still figuring out how to use blinkers.

Stabby!

I am lucky to have found this conversation about hummers. I am such a fan of these tiny creatures.

This is a great visual. They do chatter a lot.

This is quite amazing.

Attenborough covered same evolution for other type of hummers m.youtube.com/watch?v=yc8o...

📌

Wow. Very interesting.

The Government will get rid of these freeloading users

Based birds moment

If we knew who actually designed the feeder that created the need for longer beaks we could name the longer beaks after them.

How this gonna affect their ability to feed from real flowers?

Will beer bottles have the same effect on humans?

So maybe the feeders should be more similar to flowers

like how social media has made human attention spans short and fat

This goat will keep you young :)))🤔😁

Who the hell is Anna

But does that mean that they are less well adapted to their natural food?

Like republicans fingers with taxpayers 💰

You seem awfully confident

👌

I need a vacation in Kate’s yard.

We had 1 come in its throat was only 1/2 red. Strange looking. I will try to get a picture of it.

Awesome

Yeah. They are a blur.

I took a bald baby hummingbird away from my cat. I fed him sugar water from an eye dropper. I named him “Hummer. I trained him to come & perch on my shoulder when I called him & fly into his cage at night. I had him for 5 years.

Darwin for the Win!!

Just filled both of my feeders today, and all of my seed feeders.

Those are Rufus hummingbirds in the photo not Annas.

That's a quick evolution. Unless as a young hummingbird they were still growing and somehow the body adapted? Kind of like the way some cultures wear rings around their neck to elongate their necks the show stature??

The variations already exist. Just as different humans have slightly different facial structures, different birds have slightly different shapes of beaks. When there's pressure to favor one beak shape over another, birds with that beak shape will reproduce more. That's evolution.

And so is this.

Lesson learned…humans are having an impact on species. Sadly, it’s what we don’t see or is subtle that could have greater impacts. Pollinators are but one example, and there would be no hummingbird species without co-evolution with pollinators. Soil biota are another example we don think much about.

adaptation

Nothing evolutionary unless screen time correlates with differential reproduction rates, and some of us keep staring at them for generations.

adapt and overcome!

Evolution before our eyes

Now that's adapting.

Wtf?

Am I following NPR? Is this where I whisper: STOP

Every species evolves to fit their circumstances. I’ve been wondering why so many kids are taller than their parents.

Adaptation is amazing

This is the kind of news NPR puts out there? See, this is why they need to be defunded. Nobody needs to know this. People are being unreasonably mean to me, not buying my cars and committing arson against me. I’m a friggin hero! Report on that!

See also Beak of the Finch....a great study of avian evolution in the Galapagos.

Growing longer and more tapered is a compliment in this setting

Good thing evolution is a hoax.

The magic of Mother Nature!

Don't encourage the plastic overlords!

Like the moths in England getting darker from the soot of the Industrial Revolution darkening the trees. Crazy

📌

@lateralus75.bsky.social

Wow!

It means they don’t die in the winter in the northern regions they migrated to. I see hummingbirds all over my flowers in seasons when they are available.

This kinda feels wrong.

Seems like a pretty quick evolutionary adaptation.

YESSS!!! I'm glad someone else recognized that also. I adore NPR, but...I wondered who let that slip by. By effort...causes the body to chage and cells to pass to new cells creating change. I laughed about the feeders doing...and using unseen arms. Ha, ha.

The environment doesn’t design the organism; it just decides who gets to stay in the game. Its a very subtle difference but its helpful for understanding: Evolution isn't a top-down, external makeover. It's a bottom-up process driven by selection acting on variation that already exists.

They are adapting in real time almost it's incredible.

What surprises me the most is how quickly the adaptation occurred.

@chicagobirder.bsky.social thought you’d like this story.

Wow that is pretty rapid adaptation

Just like Darwin Finches in the Galapagos Islands. Evolved different beaks & shapes depending on their dominant food source, whilst still part of the same species.

Survival of the flittiest

Sounds like something @scishow.bsky.social would report on! (◕‿◕)

They seem really good at that.

Those with longer beaks survived, thrived and reproduced better, resulting in more longer beaked chicks/birds who could survive, thrive and reproduce, etc. Long-beaked birds were always there, but competing equally with short-beaked, until feeders came along and they benefited more.

Salvia comes in a number of colors and sizes. The blues,‘purples have been a favorite for years. Though the reds have always proven to be the best foundation. Then there is the variety of pinks recently. This year Orange. Clip them early to branch out. This is my secret.

I was watching mine today and marvel king at how long their beaks are! They’re such lovely little creatures

I have a feeder & it should be studied how they’ve adapted to communicate with humans. The hummingbirds in my neighborhood will fly up to my window & hover to tell me when I need to refill the feeder if I’m busy or happen to forget. They make their loud little squeaks when I refill it too, it’s cute

Amazing

So... 10 generations over 200 years... 1 generation =20 years... it has been maybe 40 years since saturation of feeders... 2 generations you get this change? Can't be bred by longer beaked. Can a bird grow longer tongue or sharper beak in its lifetime?

Love hummingbirds.

The bugs sink to the bottom.

i think a headline stating "Hummingbirds with longer beaks may have outcompeted ones with smaller beaks due to the popularity of bird feeders in human residences over 100 years, keeping in mind Darwinian evolution and disregarding Lamarckian" would add nothing at all to the story.

Except for those that moved to higher latitudes and colder temperatures. Their bills got smaller. I think the point of this is that the evolution of their bills happened lightning fast. And the longer bills were directly influenced by human involvement.

Big Beak Energy.

🧐

Time to change the feeders so the beak shape makes some weird curves!

Have a couple of questions about this. Hummers migrating farther north is more likely the result of increasingly warming temps farther north, and thus more flower and insect abundance. And nectar is a very small part of their diet vs. insects. Not convinced at all of this study's integrity.🤔

📌

There are feeders that prevent ants very well, but do you mean yellow jackets? Hornets usually not, but sugar attracts. There are feeders that do sort of prevent that. What you are doing is fine. They need more than sugar water, the plants have protein from the insects they feed on. Very important!

I wish I had a yard I would do this, I live in an apt so I have a feeder that attaches to the window. During the LA fires in January the feeders were immensely helpful b/c a lot of the vegetation & flowers had burned down.

We affect nature in so many ways

Say it with me: Apartheid Israel is waging genocide against Palestinians. There, now you're REAL JOURNALISTS.

I still like the basic premise of the Lamarckian theory of evolution.

Pardon? That question could go 2 ways, because you've left out words.

There is always an ebb and flow with tides, and when it comes to humanity's diversity there are multitudes of ebbs and flows happening - a grand scale. However, the ebb and flow is narrowing between caring and hate. Not Good Vs Evil, that's religious propaganda. Baby's Aren't Born as Blanks.

That is so interesting! It's like they are adapting and evolving while the human species is dissolving.

Darwin says hi.

The Beak of the Hummingbird...

But, but evolution takes millions of years...not 6,000...days.../s.