Abstract
The diversity of a hummingbird plant community in the eastern Andes of southern Ecuador
was studied on the equivalent of a hectare (two 500 × 10 m transects) at 1920 - 2100
m a.s.l. over the course of a year. A total of 3186 flowering individuals, representing
12 plant families, 29 genera and 72 species, were found to be visited by hummingbirds.
Bromeliaceae had the most species visited, followed by Orchidaceae and Ericaceae.
The majority of visited plant species were represented by a very few individuals,
and only a few species of the Bromeliaceae and Orchidaceae appeared in large numbers
of visited individuals. With regard to life forms visited by hummingbirds, epiphytes
predominated (59 %), followed by trees and shrubs (29 %), vines (8 %) and herbs (4
%). Visited flowers usually had short- to medium-long floral tubes which were either
functionally or morphologically tubiform or campanulate. Fifty percent of the species
had red-coloured flowers, and a considerable number of the blossoms (43 %) displayed
contrasting colours. The 72 plant species received visits from 26 species of Trochilidae
(hummingbirds) and two species of Coerebidae (honeycreepers). A mere eight species
of hummingbirds were seen frequently at the study area; the remaining species were
only occasionally sighted. The eight frequently sighted species of hummingbirds made
use of a total of 74 % of all hummingbird-visited plant species growing in the study
area.
Key words
Ornithophily - hummingbirds - diversity - tropical montane forest - Ecuador - Podocarpus
National Park.
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C. Dziedzioch
Institute for Biodiversity - Network e. V.
Dr.-Johann-Maier-Straße 4
93049 Regensburg
Germany
eMail: dziedzioch@biodiv.de
Section Editor: W. H. van der Putten