Hummingbirds are found naturally only in the Americas. There are no native hummingbird species in Europe. However, there have been a few rare sightings of vagrant hummingbirds showing up in Europe after being blown off course during migration.
Quick Facts about Hummingbirds
- Hummingbirds are small birds in the family Trochilidae, native only to the Americas.
- There are over 300 different hummingbird species.
- Hummingbirds are found from Alaska to Chile, with the greatest variety in tropical regions.
- Hummingbirds are specialized nectar feeders, with long slender bills and tongues adapted for accessing flower nectar.
- Hummingbirds can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings 12-80 times per second.
- Hummingbirds have the highest metabolism of any homeothermic animal.
Hummingbirds in Europe
There are no native hummingbird species found in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, or Antarctica. Hummingbirds evolved exclusively in the Americas and speciated rapidly in South America. Their high metabolic needs and adaptations for hovering flight make them dependent on the nectar resources of New World tropical flowers.
However, there have been around 30 sightings of vagrant hummingbirds in Europe over the years. These lost individuals were likely blown off their normal migration route by storms and winds. Some hummingbird species undertake long migrations, like the Ruby-throated Hummingbird which breeds in Canada and the eastern US then migrates to Central America for the winter. Storms can push these small birds far off track.
Documented Hummingbird Sightings in Europe
Here are some of the documented sightings of hummingbirds in Europe over the decades:
- A Rufous Hummingbird in England in 1946.
- A Ruby-throated Hummingbird in Ireland in 1988.
- An Allen’s Hummingbird in Spain in 1989.
- A Calliope Hummingbird in England in 2001.
- A Ruby-throated Hummingbird in England in 2021.
In most cases, the sightings only last a day or two before the wayward hummingbird disappears again. The birds are unlikely to find enough food in Europe to sustain themselves for long. Some European birdwatchers have tried putting out hummingbird feeders to assist vagrant individuals, but it’s a rare occurrence for them to stay more than a few days.
Could Hummingbirds Colonize Europe?
It’s highly unlikely that hummingbirds could successfully colonize Europe and establish breeding populations there. The main barriers are:
- Climate – Europe lacks the tropical and subtropical climates where hummingbirds naturally occur. The cooler temperatures and seasonal changes make survival challenging.
- Food Resources – There are far fewer nectar-producing flowers adapted to pollination by hummingbirds in Europe compared to the Americas.
- Competition – European bee, butterfly, moth, and sunbird species already fill the nectar-feeding niches.
- Migration – Hummingbirds rely on ingrained migration patterns and routes that are generations old. These are mapped to New World geography.
While occasional vagrant hummingbirds may appear, they are unlikely to thrive permanently in Europe without significant artificial assistance. Providing supplemental food and protected housing could perhaps sustain a few individuals, but true colonization is implausible.
Why Only the Americas Have Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds arose in South America approximately 22 million years ago during the early Miocene epoch. At the time, the continents were already separated as they are today. This allowed hummingbirds to evolve and diversify exclusively in the tropical Americas where their specialized traits proved advantageous.
In the Old World, nectar-feeding niches were already occupied by groups like sunbirds, flowerpeckers, honeyeaters, and lories. These groups convergently evolved some hummingbird-like traits, but did not develop true hovering flight. The Americas provided an open opportunity for hummingbirds to exploit.
Key Advantages in the Americas
There were several key factors that enabled hummingbirds to flourish in the Americas:
- Diverse flowering plants – Abundant food sources in the form of densely flowering trees, shrubs, and epiphytes.
- Lack of competitors – No other small nectar-feeding birds occupied this niche space to exclude hummingbirds.
- Climate – Tropical and subtropical Americas provided a warm, relatively stable climate.
- Topography – Mountains, cloud forests, and shorelines added habitat diversity.
- Time – Millions of years for speciation and adaptation in South America before expanding northwards.
These conditions gave hummingbirds the opportunity to monopolize nectar-feeding roles throughout North, Central, and South America and evolve specialized traits like hover-feeding, narrow bills, frantic wing-beating, and breath-holding torpor.
Why Hummingbirds Couldn’t Colonize the Old World
Once hummingbirds arose in South America, they were prevented from dispersing to other continents due to:
- Geographic barriers – Oceans, mountains, and deserts prevented easy travel between South America and Africa/Europe/Asia.
- Climate differences – Cooler Palearctic and African climates lacked stable tropical conditions.
- Nectar-feeding competition – Sunbirds and other groups already served these roles in Old World ecosystems.
- Unsuitable habitat – Few New World-style dense tropical flowers to feed from in the Old World.
- Lack of migration routes – No innate navigation pathways over oceans to drive colonization.
Hummingbirds remain in the Americas today because of their origin there in isolation, followed by barriers preventing large-scale expansion to other continents once ecological roles were already filled.
Conclusion
In summary, hummingbirds are exclusively found in the Americas and there are no native species in Europe, Africa, or Asia. The few vagrant individuals occasionally sighted in Europe are likely lost migrants blown severely off course. While they may survive a few days, it is highly improbable that hummingbirds could permanently colonize Europe due to unsuitable climate, lack of food resources, and competition from other nectar-feeders. Hummingbirds arose in South America and remained isolated there long enough to diversify and adapt to American ecological conditions. By the time they expanded northwards, geographic barriers prevented them from reaching Europe and Africa where evolutionary niches were already occupied, keeping hummingbirds as a unique New World family of birds.
