Prof. María Del Coro Arizmendi will talk about the importance of taking actions to protect hummingbirds since they play such an important role in plant reproduction and environment conservation. Hummingbirds are nectar-feeding birds that pollinate plants in America. There are 58 hummingbird species in Mexico. They  form a very distinctive family of birds of small size, long bills, very small feet and large, pointed wings. They are very good flyers and can fly in all directions, flapping their wings up to 200 times per second,  while  hovering for feeding. Hummingbird conservation depends on conserving the plants they feed on, as well as the places where they breed. Urban expansion threatens their survival, but given adequate habitats and breeding spaces, they can adapt. Hummingbird Gardens can be an opportunity for their conservation.

In Mexico, Hummingbirds mainly live in the states of Oaxaca (Sierra de Miahuatlán), Guerrero (Sierra Madre del Sur de Guerrero), Veracruz (Los Tuxtlas), Yucatán, and the in the basin of Balsas river. However, according to the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), although hummingbirds are currently threatened with extinction, designing and implementing conservation actions is challenging because of the small size of their population and their limited distribution.

Prof. Arizmendi works to raise awareness about the importance of taking actions to preserve them. It is important to build special areas where hummingbirds can be fed and live freely at the same time that they help other plants to reproduce.

MARIA DEL CORO ARIZMENDI ARRIAGA is Director at the Faculty of Higher Studies Iztacala of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and Head of the University Coordination for Sustainability at UNAM. Also, she is a full-time professor and belongs to the National Mexican Research System (SNI). She is a biologist and holds a PhD in Ecology from UNAM. Throughout 30 years, she has conducted several research projects related to ecology, evolution, and conservation of birds. Additionally, she has occupied important positions at the Ecology Laboratory of the Biology, Technology and Prototypes Unit; and the Coordination of Postgraduate studies in Biology Science at UNAM. She has published 69 articles in well-renowned journals, 11 books, and 35 book chapters as a result of her collaboration with national and international institutions such as the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT), The University of California Institute for Mexico, and the United States (UC MEXUS), the National Fish and Wildlife,  among others. Her work has been cited 1,815 times.

She developed and implemented the project “Gardens for hummingbirds” (In Spanish: Jardínes para Colibríes). The project aimed to engage society in conservation activities for hummingbirds’ habitat. The first garden was built in 2014, and by 2020 there are about 90 gardens in Mexico City.