7 Hummingbirds That Wear Pants With Flair (Plus One Bonus)

[Judi Lynn]

Meet the "puffleg” birds of the Latin American tropics, covered in feathers all the way down.

By Purbita Saha
December 14, 2018

Why do people wear pants? Warmth, decency, self preservation, and respect are all good reasons. But what use would a bird have in donning a pair?

That’s the mystery surrounding a group of tropical hummingbirds that, unlike most of their kind, are feathered from head to toe. With an extra layer of fluff around their tarsi (the bird word for legs), these 15 or so species come off as more glamorous than demure, flashing their Renaissance “pants” when they perch or ferociously attack flowers. The evolutionary purpose for their costuming is less clear, though.

While the trousered hummingbirds span two genuses (the closely related Eriocnemis and Haplophaedia, which combined are called the pufflegs), the feature seems to only pop up in species living around the Andes mountains. That would point to feathered thighs being a cold-weather adaptation—but as Audubon field editor Kenn Kaufman notes, there are species at even higher elevations that go commando. Instead, Kaufman thinks that the leg feathers may be purely decorative. “When you consider all the crests, tufts, fans, and elongated tail feathers worn by hummingbirds, not to mention all the iridescent colors, it seems reasonable to think that a conspicuous feather feature might have evolved for looks and not for any practical function,” he wrote in an email.

To further complicate the question, hummingbirds are not the only ones that have feathers as pants. The Yellow-thighed Finch (see at bottom) is a common example: Its eye-catching legs likely serve as a beacon for its kin. “In the dark, misty, subtropical forest in Costa Rica, pairs or family groups of Yellow-thighed Finches might be able to stay in contact with the visual signal of those bright feathers,” Kaufman wrote. Who said fashion is immaterial?

More:
https://www.audubon.org/news/7-hummingbirds-wear-pants-flair-plus-one-bonus

[flibbitygiblets]

1. Cool!!

[pnwest]

2. Fancy pants!

[question everything]

3. Oh, they are beautiful

and when all one reads is the danger to so many species, it warms the heart to see them.

Thank you for posting.

[Duppers]

4. Those were cool birds.

❤ 🐦

[Demovictory9]

5. nice pants

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Really neat looking.

[mopinko]

7. i used to have one of these-

prolly the craziest pet ever. the pants were just the icing on the cake.