SAN DIEGO — According to researchers, female Jacobin Hummingbirds in Central America are changing their plumage.
"What we found was the ones that look like males see less aggression and we think that's why it's evolved," Dr. Jay Falk said.
Falk is an evolutionary biologist and studied White Necked Jacobin hummingbirds in Panama over the past five years. In his research he discovered that 30% of the females were polymorphic, they developed plumage similar to males.
"These females that look like males tend to get harassed less, and by harassed, I mean aggressive harassment," he said.
The research captured 426 Jacobins and attached passive radio-frequency identification tags and a network of tag-detecting feeders was set up with taxidermy mounts. By looking like other males that gave them better access.
"We started thinking a lot about what was important to these birds. Aggression is a big part of hummingbirds; other hummingbirds want to be at the flower they're drinking from," Dr. Falk said.
Looking like a male means you're getting more food which plays a huge role when it comes to raising offspring. In the hummingbird world, the female does everything and the male does only one.
"Just a little more food from the females means more food for the chicks, that's the main thing those chicks need," he said.
One of the thoughts in the research was that perhaps the females were adapting the bright plumage to attract mates.
"Based on what we were finding in our experiments that didn't seem to be the case. It didn't seem that the males were more interested in the females with more ornamentation," Dr. Falk said.
Having similar plumage as males makes the playing field level.
"If you go to a nice flower and there's a lot of good food you want to stay as long as possible. Not being chased away from that food source is going to be a big benefit to you."
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