Articles for tag: Arizona wildlife, bird ecology, desert adaptation, desert birds, environmental adaptation, Hummingbirds, Ornithology, Pollinators, Southwest nature, wildlife resilience

Heat Dissipation Through Flight Engineering

Arizona’s Hummingbirds Defy the Desert

Jan Otte

Picture this: it’s 115 degrees Fahrenheit in the Arizona , the sun is beating down mercilessly, and most animals have sought shelter in whatever shade they can find. Yet overhead, tiny jewel-like birds are zipping through the scorching air at breakneck speeds, their wings beating up to 80 times per second. These are Arizona’s hummingbirds, ...

brown humming bird flying in the air

How Climate Change Is Pushing Hummingbirds Higher Into the Rockies

Suhail Ahmed

By late summer, when thunderheads pile up over Colorado’s spine, the high meadows flash like neon with paintbrush, columbine, and larkspur – and tiny, iridescent bodies flicker through the bloom. Yet the show is changing. Warmer springs and drier valleys are re-timing the mountain clock that guides nectar and the birds that chase it, nudging ...