Many thanks to Luis Mazariegos for his kindness in letting me use this beautiful picture of P. mixta being approached by the Andean sword-billed hummingbird, the marvellously named Ensifera ensifera. This photo was taken in the department of Tolima, Colombia, at an altitude around 2000 meters. The site is on a road from Ibague to el Cañon del Combeima heading to Nevado del Tolima. The photo is in his Hummingbirds of Colombia book. E.ensifera has a 4'' beak which is longer than its body (excluding the tail) & is the only bird in the world with such proportions. At rest it sits with its beak held up vertically to reduce neck strain. It is found between 1700-3500m, it is commonest at 2500-3000m, & is sedentary. It lives in humid to semi humid upper montane forest and forest edges, sometimes at patches of of shrubs in the Páramo. Páramos are zones of elevation found in the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Northern Peru & Venezuela. They have a very difficult & variable, though not extreme, climate, often ranging daily from wet, cold & windy to sunny & warm. It is known to feed from flowers with long pendant floral tubes including probably Brugmansia, Columnea, Datura sanguinea, Datura tatula, Fuchsia, Passiflora mixta (flowers more upright as above), Passiflora tripartita var. mollissima, P. tarminiana, P. pinnatistipula, Salpichroa & Solanum. When it feeds its neck or head will be dusted with pollen & sometimes it will perch below the flowers when feeding. As nectar is low in protein it also feeds on insects, catching them in the same way as a swift in flight. Many hummingbirds are under threat but, although there is no reliable information on breeding, it is thought to be relatively common. It's adaptation is so extreme that it can reach nectar in plants that no other bird can. There is some evidence however that global warming is causing birds to move to higher altitudes to control their body temperature. If it suddenly moves from an area those Passiflora with very long floral tubes that are unable to self pollinate will be in trouble. Lanny Chambers has advised me that E. ensifera is the most likely pollinator of the very large flowered P. parritae which may now be extinct in the wild. Tacsonias are notoriously heat sensitive & as well as losing their pollinators they may be simply unable to survive in warmer conditons. They may depend on their fruit being eaten by animals & seed being dispersed to higher cooler conditions. A very fragile existence! Some of the info on this page is from Handbook of the Birds of the World vol.5, ed. by Hoyo, Elliott, and Sargatal. 1999 |
Ensifera ensifera
