The Tucson Hummingbird Project (http://hummingbirds.arizona.edu): Reconciliation ecology, community ecology, and citizen science in an urban area

Hummingbirds are native treasures we could potentially enjoy in our backyard. However, as a group, hummingbirds are jeopardized by human development. Of ~340 known species, 68 are Red listed (IUCN 2006). But development and biodiversity need not be conflicting, and urban areas may actually provide a valuable surrogate for degraded habitats. Our knowledge of community ecology in hummingbirds can and should be applied to their conservation in the wild, and reconciliation (Rosenzweig 2003) in urbanized areas. The Tucson Hummingbird Project is a citizen-science, reconciliation ecology project aimed to study community ecology, monitor, and conserve hummingbirds in Tucson, Arizona. During the past two years over 100 local volunteers joined the project and collected data in their backyards once a week. Yards differed in habitat characteristics (e.g., vegetation and location) and type and level of resources (i.e., artificial feeders and nectar plants). The volunteers documented habitat-use, foraging behavior, abundance and intra- and interspecific interactions in hummingbirds. Preliminary results suggest how hummingbird communities are organized and explain how resource availability and community ecology are affecting their distribution. Four species are most abundant in Tucson: Anna’s, Black-chinned, Costa’s, and Broad-billed hummingbirds. While Anna’s and Black-chinned hummingbirds were abundant throughout Tucson, Costa’s and Broad-billed hummingbirds were found predominantly in less populated areas, closer to natural habitats. Over 50% of the yards contained natural desert or native landscaping. An average participant had two feeders and 2-3 hummingbird species, with a significant correlation between number of feeders in a yard and number of species. Beyond studying community ecology, this is a model system that demonstrates how we can reconcile a city in regards to hummingbird habitats: Design and test a system to monitor, conserve and augment native species, and provide stop-over habitats for migrating species. This is achieved via large-scale outreach and education of the local community.