Memory for location and visual cues in white-eared hummingbirds Hylocharis leucotis
Memory for location and visual cues in white-eared hummingbirds Hylocharis leucotis作者机构：Doctorado en Ciencias Biologicas Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana. Unidad Xochimilco. Calzada del Hueso 1100 Col. Villa Quietud 04960 Moxico D.F. Moxico Laboratorio de Ecologfa de la Conducta Centro Tlaxcala de Biologfa de la Conducta UAT-UNAM Km 1.5 carretera Tlaxcala- Puebla s/n Colonia Xicohtoncatl Apdo. Postal 262 Tlaxcala Tlaxcala 90070 Moxico. Departamento el Hombre y su Ambiente. Universidad Autdnoma Metropolitana. Unidad Xochimilco. Calzada del Hueso 1100 Col. Villa Quietud 04960 MExico D.F. Mexico
出 版 物：《Current Zoology》 (动物学报（英文版）)
年 卷 期：2011年第57卷第4期
页 面：468-476页
核心收录：
学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 07[理学] 071002[理学-动物学] 071003[理学-生理学]
基 金：supported by a scholarship from the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia Mexico
主 题：Visual cues Location White-eared hummingbird Foraging
摘 要：In nature hummingbirds face floral resources whose availability, quality and quantity can vary spatially and temporally. Thus, they must constantly make foraging decisions about which patches, plants and flowers to visit, partly as a function of the nectar reward. The uncertainty of these decisions would possibly be reduced if an individual could remember locations or use visual cues to avoid revisiting recently depleted flowers. In the present study, we carried out field experiments with white-eared hummingbirds Hylocharis leucotis, to evaluate their use of locations or visual cues when foraging on natural flowers Penstemon roseus. We evaluated the use of spatial memory by observing birds while they were foraging between two plants and within a single plant. Our results showed that hummingbirds prefer to use location when foraging in two plants, but they also use visual cues to efficiently locate unvisited rewarded flowers when they feed on a single plant. However, in absence of visual cues, in both experiments birds mainly used the location of previously visited flowers to make subsequent visits. Our data suggest that hummingbirds are capable of learning and employing this flexibility depending on the faced environmental conditions and the information acquired in previous visits [Current Zoology 57 （4）： 468-476, 2011].
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