Hummingbirds are the most important avian pollinators in the Western Hemisphere. They are especially important in highly diverse areas.  Because of this, many plants and hummingbirds have coevolved. Artificial feeders have been introduced in many areas, and the question of whether they affect the relationship between hummingbirds and flora has arose many times. These researchers formed two hypothesis; one was that hummingbirds visit flowers less frequently when feeders and present, and the second was that flower visitation frequencies are not affected due to the increase in population that feeders cause.

The study was conducted in cloud forest reserves of Ecuador. Feeders with a 1:10 sugar water concentration were placed either in near a lodge in the reserve or near the reserve’s entrance. The visitation by hummingbirds to flowers were measured in 4 categories based on their distance away from the feeders, and recorded as visits per hour. The genus of the hummingbirds were also noted, since hummingbird behavior and territoriality varies between species.

There was no statistical difference found between the frequency of hummingbird visitation to flowers and their distance from feeders. These results differ from another study done in Mexico that found that feeders do lower the rates of visitation to plants by hummingbirds. One reason for this study’s findings could be that the territoriality of the hummingbirds was not measured. Another factor could have been that the sugar water was only 1:10, which is a relatively low concentration.

This study concluded that artificial feeders do not tend to decrease flower visitation by hummingbirds, and may in fact facilitate more visitation to flowers at close proximity to the feeders. This should be taken with a grain of salt, because this study was done on 10 species in a particular area, and differences between taxonomic groups of both hummingbirds and flowers could yield different results in other areas. More research should be done on this.

Works cited:
Brockmeyer, T., Schaefer, H.. 2012. Do nectar feeders in Andean nature reserves affect flower visitation by hummingbirds? Basic and Applied Ecology. 13(3), 294-300.
Article sent to me by a previous professor.