ABSTRACT
Hummingbirds are a familiar New World group of small, high energy, fast-flying nectivores. Many species are not particularly sensitive to forest fragmentation at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP), probably instead positively responding to increased flowering along forest edges. Other species, including some longer-billed hermits but also more famously in the Purple-throated Carib Hummingbird Eulampis jugularis, are sexually dimorphic in bill curvature with females having more curved bills. Despite great interest in hummingbirds, both in scientific research and by bird-watchers, their molt strategies are poorly understood. Howell et al. reported that hummingbirds only follow the Complex Basic Strategy, but Phaethornis longirostris has been suggested to lack a preformative molt. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds of North America undergo a prealternate molt, and this should be looked for in other migratory hummingbird species, although it may not be likely in resident tropical species.
