Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.The world’s largest hummingbird has been hiding in plain sight for centuries — and scientists only discovered the species is distinct from another giant species after attaching tiny backpacks to hummingbirds to understand migration patterns.Along the way, researchers also identified the longest hummingbird migration journey, which spans a 5,200-mile (8,368-kilometer) round trip, or about the distance between New York City and Buenos Aires.Questions around the giant hummingbird of South America have persisted since naturalist Charles Darwin first observed them in 1834 during his expedition aboard the HMS Beagle.Darwin observed the birds, which are about eight times the size of typical hummingbirds, breeding along the Pacific coast of Chile, but then they seemed to completely vanish after breeding. He speculated that the giant hummingbirds migrated to the Atacama Desert region, located in northern Chile.Now, new research has revealed that there are two distinct species of giant hummingbird in South America — the northern giant hummingbird that lives year-round in the Andes, and the migratory southern giant hummingbird — and they have been evolving separately for millions of years. A southern giant hummingbird is seen flying from its breeding grounds in central Chile. – Chris WittA new study describing the birds appeared Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.“There aren’t many animal migrations of large, charismatic species that are still totally unknown, but that was the case for southern giant hummingbirds,” said lead study author Jessie Williamson, a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and Rose Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York. “We wanted to fin …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnSign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.The world’s largest hummingbird has been hiding in plain sight for centuries — and scientists only discovered the species is distinct from another giant species after attaching tiny backpacks to hummingbirds to understand migration patterns.Along the way, researchers also identified the longest hummingbird migration journey, which spans a 5,200-mile (8,368-kilometer) round trip, or about the distance between New York City and Buenos Aires.Questions around the giant hummingbird of South America have persisted since naturalist Charles Darwin first observed them in 1834 during his expedition aboard the HMS Beagle.Darwin observed the birds, which are about eight times the size of typical hummingbirds, breeding along the Pacific coast of Chile, but then they seemed to completely vanish after breeding. He speculated that the giant hummingbirds migrated to the Atacama Desert region, located in northern Chile.Now, new research has revealed that there are two distinct species of giant hummingbird in South America — the northern giant hummingbird that lives year-round in the Andes, and the migratory southern giant hummingbird — and they have been evolving separately for millions of years. A southern giant hummingbird is seen flying from its breeding grounds in central Chile. – Chris WittA new study describing the birds appeared Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.“There aren’t many animal migrations of large, charismatic species that are still totally unknown, but that was the case for southern giant hummingbirds,” said lead study author Jessie Williamson, a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and Rose Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York. “We wanted to fin …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
