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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Environment
Cy Neff

California hummingbird beaks transformed by feeders: ‘more tapered and longer’

Bird pecks at feeder
An Anna’s hummingbird feeding from a backyard feeder in Bend, Oregon. Photograph: Tobias Nolan/Zuma/Rex/Shutterstock

Which came first: the feeder or the bird?

A seemingly straightforward question, but the answer might not be so simple. According to a recently published study in Global Change Biology, the use of human-made hummingbird feeders has changed the beak sizes and shapes of Anna’s hummingbirds, and spread their range from a narrow pocket of California all the way up the coast to British Columbia.

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