Hummingbird abundance is related to food resources availability in a temperate forest of central Mexico

One strategy animals perform to cope scarcity of food resources is to shift in number of individuals according towards areas with available resources. This strategy can be more marked in species that are constrained by high energetic requirements such as hummingbirds. We aim to determine the extent to which the availability of food resources could be predictor of hummingbird numbers within and across hummingbird species in a temperate forest of central Mexico. We anticipate fluctuations in the number of hummingbirds grouped by species is best explained by monthly fluctuations in flowering resources species compared to pooled data. Our results indicate all seven hummingbird species fluctuate monthly in number across the year, which corresponds to monthly fluctuations of plant species they feed upon. The Basilinna leucotis and the Salvia elegans were present and interact in the study area almost all year-round, guiding the abundance pattern of both plants and hummingbirds in the study site. Generalized Linear Mixed Models indicate that although considering the abundance of the number of flowers for all plant species together could explain the fluctuation in all hummingbird species pooled together, considering both plant species and hummingbird species separately can provide a better explanation for changes in bird abundance. The model that analyzed species indicate that the interaction between the year-round species B. leucotis and S. elegans recorded the highest significant size effect. Our results highlight the fact that abundant species guiding abundance patterns could obscure by-species hummingbird trends and the processes guiding their patterns of abundance. We point out the need for performing adequate analytical approaches that can detect important biological interactions, and the likelihood of changes in habitat changing the pattern observed