Scientists solve giant hummingbird mystery

The world’s largest hummingbird has been hiding in plain sight for centuries — and scientists only discovered the species is distinct from another giant species after attaching tiny backpacks to hummingbirds

Questions around the giant hummingbird of South America have persisted since naturalist Charles Darwin first observed them in 1834 during his expedition aboard the HMS Beagle.

Darwin observed the birds, which are about eight times the size of typical hummingbirds, breeding along the Pacific coast of Chile

He speculated that the giant hummingbirds migrated to the Atacama Desert region, located in northern Chile

 New research has revealed that there are two distinct species of giant hummingbird in South America — the northern giant hummingbird that lives year-round in the Andes

A new study describing the birds appeared Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

There aren’t many animal migrations of large, charismatic species that are still totally unknown, but that was the case for southern giant hummingbirds

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