Research Overview and Research Articles: Week 4

Helmuth O. Wagner. “Food and Feeding Habits of Mexican Hummingbirds.” The Wilson Bulletin, vol. 58, no. 2, 1946, pp. 69–93. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4157484 

I found this story through a Google Scholar search. I typed the word “Violetear” into the search bar but that wasn’t enough, so instead I tried “Violetear Hummingbirds”. This allowed Google Scholar to show me more relevant articles and it ultimately took me about 15 minutes to find this article. I didn’t recognise the writer but I did think that this article could possibly give me insight on Violetears’ behavior based on the title. The researcher observed hummingbirds’ eating patterns by taking two groups of hummingbirds, one which ate mostly insects while the other that mostly ate nectar. He began to feed both groups artificial nectar and observed their behavioral changes to their sudden change in diet. The writer is ultimately investigating Violetears’ eating habits and their preferred meals. He found that those hummingbirds that ate mostly nectar didn’t have much of a change when they were being fed artificial nectar, but the other group did experience behavioral changes as the nectar wasn’t a part of their normal diet in their natural habitats.This helps us better understand how the resources in each region will affect a hummingbirds’ diet and how this may affect their behavior. I think I could definitely tell a story about this article! The article is a bit long but it doesn’t use much jargon; therefore, I think I can definitely understand the article and hopefully make it even more brief and understandable for a general audience. Furthermore, I think I would make the research the protagonist as it is what the article is already about!

Barrantes, Gilbert, et al. “Male Song Variation of Green Violetear (Colibri Thalassinus) in the Talamanca Mountain Range, Costa Rica.” The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, vol. 120, no. 3, 2008, pp. 519–24, https://doi.org/10.1676/07-024.1 

I found this article through UCSB Library! I searched “Violetear” as I had already done in the Google Scholar search. To my luck, this was one of the first articles that appeared on my screen with no further search words. I found this article within a few minutes since the beginning of my UCSB Library search. I also didn’t recognise the writers’ names from this article but I found it interesting regardless! The researchers investigated the song patterns within male hummingbirds from different regions during breeding season. They recorded 19 males’ singing, all from different regions, once every two minutes or until the bird stopped singing. They were also able to record each birds’ whereabouts by creating a circular area of 20 meters in diameter based on the perch in which the male birds were on. The researchers ultimately found that male hummingbirds stayed in the same territories for at least six days. This research can help scientists determine territorial boundaries within the Green Violetear species. It can also help us identify song variations, their possible similarities, and what they could mean for Green Violetears’ relationships and behavior. This article is on the shorter side and it does use more scientific terminology than the previous article I talked about. Despite this, I understand most of the information that is being provided and I think I could write a story on it! I would make the male Green Violetears the protagonists as they are what are being researched and observed.