Territorial behavior of Colibri coruscans in the presence of nectarivorous species singing, in patches of nicotiana glauca in the La Paz Valley

The observation regarding the decisions that the animals make is fundamental to understand the animal behavior. These decisions are given through cognitive processes, these processes being fundamental to the understanding of the rational decision, which consists in choosing that behavior that maximizes profit based on costs and benefits. The assembly of nectarivorous birds offers an interesting opportunity to study the processes associated with rationality. It was evaluated whether Colibri coruscans presents different levels of territorialist behavior against nectarivorous competitors. In order to trigger responses to territorial behavior, recordings of songs of four species (C. coruscans, Patagona gigas, Sappho sparganurus and Diglossa carbonaria) were reproduced. It was found that the behavior of C. coruscans varied significantly before the stimuli of the four species. There was a smaller number of territorial behaviors before S. sparganurus (trapliner specie), and a greater number before its specific species (territorial specie). Therefore, it could be said that C. coruscans presents different types of behavior to different species of nectarivores, which present different strategies of food behavior and territorialism, in order to associate a scenario of energy saving and rational decision making.