Missed connection: Me, a broad-tailed, red-throated hummingbird. You, a delicate yellow flower full of nectar. I flew all the way from Central America to find you, but you'd withered away. Why did you bloom so early?
Okay, so hummingbirds may not be posting plaintive ads on Craigslist anytime soon, but new research finds that they are struggling to sync up their schedules with those they hold dear. Glacier lilies, flowering plants that bloom in mountain meadows in western North America, help sustain broad-tailed hummingbirds during breeding seasons. But a new study finds that these plants are blooming 17 days earlier than they did in the 1970s, thanks to climate change.
"In some years, the lilies have already bloomed by the time the first hummingbird lands," study researcher Amy McKinney of the University of Maryland said in a statement.
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