According to lead scientist on the project and Miller Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley Alejandro Rico-Guevara, physical traits observed in male hummingbirds in the tropics of Central and South America could not be explained through adaptations to feeding strategies.
“They’re always jousting,” said Robert Dudley, co-author of the project and chair of the integrative biology department at UC Berkeley. “All those crazy hooks and things on the bills may make it harder to extract nectar.”