If you have been feeding hummingbirds for many seasons, you probably feel that hummingbirds can recognize you. The findings of research conducted by scientists at the University of California, Davis, seem to suggest that this may be true.
FEMALE RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD; PHOTO CREDIT: Terry W Johnson
In this study, researchers trained hummingbirds to associate a certain human face with food. The birds learned that only this individual would provide them with food. When the birds learned this was the case, they would fly up to a person wearing a mask depicting the person they had been feeding them even when researchers wearing different masks were close by.
