Using Smartphones to Determine Hummingbird Dominance Networks in Quinde Ecotourist-Route, Ecuador

Abstract

Records of wildlife animals have improved with the use of smartphones that permit people to take photographs and videos anywhere. Short videos of hummingbirds visiting artificial feeders in the Quinde Ecotourist-route covering an elevational range from 400 to 3110 m a.s.l. were taken to describe hummingbird aggression networks, to identify hummingbird hierarchies, and the effect of hummingbird traits on interspecific dominance hierarchies using data obtained through a low-cost, non-invasive method such as videos recorded with smartphones, which could be collected by the average tourist, and to relate them to morphological specialization and distributions. Smartphones can record the behavior of diverse tropical hummingbird assemblages at supplemental feeding sites, although they permit recording only during short periods. Heavier, more dominant hummingbird species monopolized access to feeders in the northwestern slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes, were more widespread, and had greater feeding rates. Our results therefore suggest that differences in body mass may lead to the formation of interspecific dominance hierarchies, leaving the heaviest and most aggressive species in the greatest control of artificial feeders' stations.