Context-dependent, risk-sensitive foraging preferences in wild rufous hummingbirds

• Published in: Animal behaviour Vol. 58; no. 1; pp. 59 - 66
• Main Authors: Hurly, T.Andrew, Oseen, Michael D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kent Elsevier Ltd 01.07.1999; Elsevier; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Ltd
• Subjects: Animal behavior; Animal cognition; Animal ethology; Aves; Biological and medical sciences; Birds; Flowers; Flowers & plants; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Selasphorus rufus; Vertebrata; Canada; Alberta; North America; America; Flower; Feeding behavior; Theory; Risk; Foraging behavior; Nectarivorous; Trochilidae; Vertebrata; Preference; Predation; Aves; Food supply; Field study
• ISSN: 0003-3472; 1095-8282
• DOI: 10.1006/anbe.1999.1130

We tested the risk-sensitive foraging preferences of wild rufous hummingbirds, Selasphorus rufus , with three types of artificial flowers. All three flower types provided the same mean volume of 30μl of sucrose, but differed in terms of variability of the reward: constant, low variance and high variance. In trinary comparisons, subjects preferred the low-variance reward over the constant reward, and the constant reward over the high-variance reward; a result not predicted by risk-sensitive foraging theory. However, when tested with traditional binary comparisons, hummingbirds showed conventional risk-averse behaviour and selected the constant reward over the low- or high-variance rewards. This reversal of preference represents a context-dependent foraging preference. The utility of selecting intermediate levels of risk and the source of the preference reversal are discussed relative to risk-sensitive foraging theory and the effects of local context on foraging choices.