Hummingbirds and Heliconia
Hummingbirds are the main pollinators of Heliconia in many locations. At La Selva research station in Costa Rica it was found that specific species of Heliconia have specific hummingbird pollinators (Stiles 1975). These hummingbirds can be organized into two different groups: hermits and non-hermits. Hermits tend to have long curved bills while non-hermits tend to possess short straight bills. Hermits are generally non-territorial and they are traplining foragers. The non-territorial hummingbirds tend to help with cross pollination in Heliconia. Non-hermits are territorial over their Heliconia clumps and this causes more self-pollination (Stiles 1975). There are different mechanisms in Heliconia that can determine which hummingbirds choose it. Some of these are the color of the flower and also the amount of calories the flower itself provides with its nectar. The hummingbird itself will choose the plants its feeds from based on its beak shape, its perch on the plant, and its territory choice (Linhart 1973).
It was found that hummingbird visits to the Heliconia flower did not affect its production of nectar (Feinsinger 1983). This may account for the flowers not having a consistent amount of nectar produced from flower to flower.
Different Heliconia species have different flowering seasons. This suggests that the species compete for pollinators. It was found that many species of Heliconia, even the newly colonized species, all had many pollinators visit (Feinsinger 1978).
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