biology individual Project week one

Ruby Throated

Biology IP1

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Class

Date

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Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds are nectarivorous which feed on the ornithophilous plants for their food. They digest their food with the presence of the sucrose nectar and are strongly related to the honey bees because of similar pollinating abilities. Hummingbirds are small and unique and consist of as many as three hundred species around the world. Most of these species originate from the central and southern part of America (Bell and Smith, 2001). Hummingbirds have the tendency to learn specific locations by remembering the colors of the feeder and using visible landmarks through so they can improve their performance. Due to their high dependency on colors they seem to prefer certain colors more than the others. Red is the color that appears to attract them the most.

The preference of hummingbirds to the red flowers can be gathered from the fact that in California, the only flower that the ruby throated hummingbirds visit for feedinh have flowers in a shade of red. However, this does not mean the hummingbird did not visit the other flowers but stayed considerably less time when compared to the flowers having a shade of red (Miller and Miller, 1971). It is because of these observations that people have generated a belief that ruby throated hummingbirds have a preference for ornithophilous plants with red flowers over any other ornithophilous plants.

An experiment was conducted to prove this fact. The information provided by the experiment will provide important information on the study of the pollinating patterns of hummingbirds. The reason for this is that the population of the honey bees is decreasing significantly and the scientists are seeing hummingbirds as a substitute for honey bees as pollinators. Thus, studying their behavior with regards to the colors of the flowers can seriously help in the study of hummingbirds as a substitute for honey bees.

Hypothesis

The Ruby Throated Hummingbird visits the red feeder more than the other feeders of other colors. The preference of the feeder was not influenced by the position and orientation of the feeder.

Prediction

If the Ruby Throated Hummingbird visits the red feeder more than the feeder of any other color then it is proved that the Ruby Throated Hummingbird has a preference for flowers red in color.

Methodology

The purpose of this study is to see if the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds has a preference for a particular color flower when they look for flowers to feed on in order to use the information to attract more hummingbirds. The hummingbirds would be monitored all the time since the most preferred feed time of the birds is not known. Moreover, artificial feeders would be used to observe the feeding preference of the ruby throated hummingbirds. The reasons why artificial feeders would be used are:

· It is very difficult to control and monitor the natural environment while the artificial environment can be easily monitored with the help of electronic gadgets.

· The second reason for choosing artificial feeders was that the color of the feeders can be changed easily which is very difficult in natural settings as it is quite difficult to change the color of the flower.

· The nectar would be available in equal amount all throughout the day which is not in case of natural flowers whose nectar varies as the day progresses.

The experiment would be conducted at a site in Garrett County, Maryland near the dense forests so that the birds can perch in the forest whey are not feeding. The Ruby Throated Hummingbird had previously been noticed at the site and there were many ornithopilous plants at the site (Asang, 2012). The study would be done on a bright sunny day so that the colors can be seen clearly by the ruby throated hummingbird. The experimental set up consisted of two feeders built from plastic bottles attached that contained the feeding solution. For creating the feeding sucrose solution, water and granulated sugar were mixed in 4:1 proportion and then the solution was heated. The solution was heated so that any germs present in the water could be eliminated and moreover it would help in dissolving the sugar completely. After that the solution is cooled down and fed into the feeders.

Four holes are created in the feeder through the ruby throated hummingbird could drink water. In the four holes, disks of four colors were placed which resembled the flower of four shades. The disks chosen were of red, yellow, blue and green in color. Red was the first choice because the studies revealed that hummingbirds do actually prefer red color over the others. The second choice was yellow because of the plants having nectar are yellow in color and hence second disk was chosen to be yellow in color. Green was chosen to add variety to the disks so that it is actually studied that the ruby throated hummingbirds actually have a color preference.

Blue was chosen because it is at the end of the spectrum and hence can be used to check the preference in the spectrum. The disks were also rotated so that it is checked that it the just the color they are preferring or it is also influenced by the position of the disk. The feeder was placed approximately three and half feet from the ground and the number of times the Ruby Throated Hummingbird fed on them was noted down and after 24 hours the position was changed and separate readings were taken for the next 24 hours. Each feed was counted as one.

Results

For the first position, blue color was the least preferred color by the ruby throated hummingbird followed by green. Yellow was the second most preferred color for the ruby throated hummingbird and red was the color that hummingbird preferred the most. The second position showed similar results with red being the most preferred and blue being the least. The same was for the third and fourth position with the most preferred color being red and blue being the least preferred color.

Discussion

The experiment was carried out for a four day period and through the research it was proved that the ruby throated hummingbird showed a preference towards a particular color. this color was red which is the color they most preferred. There was no variation of preference with the change in the position of the disk once again proving the hypothesis and showing the position does not play a role in the preference of the feeder by the ruby throated hummingbird. The experiment also showed that blue was the color least preferred by the ruby throated hummingbird. This shows that the bird did not prefer colors that were at the end of the spectrum.

The ruby throated hummingbirds were very sensitive to red color and it was because of this reason, they chose to feed on the red color more than the other colors. Yellow was also preferred and this can be due to the reason that most of the ornithophilous flowers are yellow in color. One reason for this is they could have adapted to ornithophilous flowers being yellow in color. The ruby throated hummingbird preferred green over blue and this can be because the places where ruby throated hummingbirds migrate such as Mexico has ornithophilous flowers that are yellow in color. The results could be very beneficial in increasing pollination.

References

Asang, M., Blackburn C., Boone, J. & Ellington, D. (2012). The Feeding Preferences for

Color and Time of Day. White Paper,

Miller, R. E. and Miller, R. S. (1971). Feeding Activity and Color Preferences of Ruby

Throated Hummingbirds. Retrieved April 6, 2014 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1365757

Bell. W. and Smith, C. R. (2001). Attracting Hummingbirds to your yard. Retrieved from

http://www2.dnr.cornell.edu/ext/info/pubs/Wildlife/hummingbird%20fact%20sheet.pdf