How humans have "shaped" the Anna's Hummingbird

Faye Romero

Tue, Mar 10, 2026 7:00 PM

As humans continue to modify the environment, it’s important we characterize how these changes affect and interact with organisms in nature. Using a combination of Christmas Bird Count data, newspaper articles, museum collections, and thermal imaging, we discovered fascinating relationships between the Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna) and human-induced environmental change over the past 150 years in California, including range expansions and bill shape changes in association with temperature and nectar feeders.

The livestream can be found at our YouTube channel.

(Photo credit: Mick Thompson)