Hummingbirds and the plants they visit in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

Abstract

We describe the relative abundance, plant species visited, and plant communities used by hummingbird
species inhabiting the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve, a semiarid area in South-central Mexico. We recorded 14
hummingbird species and 35 plant species distributed in 4 plant communities during our study. We found 86 different
hummingbird-plant interactions. Amazilia violiceps and Cynanthus latirostris were the most common hummingbirds,
while C. latirostris, A. violiceps, and Cynanthus sordidus were the hummingbirds that visited more plant species.
Hummingbirds were distributed differentially between plant communities inside the reserve, with 12 species being
present in the arboreal plant community of the lowlands, 11 both in cactus forest and perennial spine shrub plants, and
6 in perennial unarmed shrub plants. Cercidium praecox (Fabaceae) was the plant species with the highest number of
visiting hummingbird species (10 species). Cactus forest and perennial spine shrub plants were the plant communities
with largest number of possible interactions (57 and 51, respectively). The mean connectance value of the interaction
matrix was similar between plant communities (near to 22%), but lower than those reported previously in other places.
In the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve the hummingbird-plant interaction system will be preserved if the
hummingbirds C. latirostris, A. violiceps, C. sordidus, and L. clemenciae, and the plants C. praecox, I. arborescens, E.
chiotilla, and N. glauca, are protected.