A male Broad-tailed Hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus), visits a scarlet gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata) flower

Description:

Attribution: David W. Inouye. Biology Image Library ID 64660.A male Broad-tailed Hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus), visits a scarlet gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata) flower at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, in Colorado. These migratory hummingbirds fly from Mexico to Colorado each summer to reproduce, and are the primary pollinators of scarlet gilia flowers. Long-term studies of the phenology of the hummingbirds and the flowers they visit have been conducted since 1973 at RMBL, and show that the timing of both of these partners in the ecosystem service of pollination are changing, but not at the same rates. Males have an iridescent gorget, and produce a mechanical wing whistle that has a function in territorial displays (produced by the slot that is visible in this picture between the first two primary feathers). Taken with a Nikon D800e, 200mm Nikkor macro lens, ISO640, 1/500sec f10, SB800 flash.Highly Commended in the BMC Ecology Image Competition 2012:BMC Ecology 2013, 13:6 doi:10.1186/1472-6785-13-6www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6785/13/6