Hummingbirds have a greatly enlarged hippocampal formation

• Published in: Biology letters (2005) 2012-08, Vol.8 (4), p.657-659
• Main Authors: Ward, Brian J., Day, Lainy B., Wilkening, Steven R., Wylie, Douglas R., Saucier, Deborah M., Iwaniuk, Andrew N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Birds - anatomy & histology; Birds - classification; Birds - genetics; Birds - physiology; Comparative Method; Feeding Behavior - physiology; Flowers; Hippocampus; Hippocampus - anatomy & histology; Hummingbirds; Magnoliopsida; Memory - physiology; Neurobiology; Organ Size; Phylogeny; Plant Nectar; Spatial Behavior - physiology; Spatial Memory; Species Specificity; Telencephalon - anatomy & histology
• ISSN: 1744-9561; 1744-957X
• DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.1180

Both field and laboratory studies demonstrate that hummingbirds (Apodiformes, Trochilidae) have exceptional spatial memory. The complexity of spatial–temporal information that hummingbirds must retain and use daily is probably subserved by the hippocampal formation (HF), and therefore, hummingbirds should have a greatly expanded HF. Here, we compare the relative size of the HF in several hummingbird species with that of other birds. Our analyses reveal that the HF in hummingbirds is significantly larger, relative to telencephalic volume, than any bird examined to date. When expressed as a percentage of telencephalic volume, the hummingbird HF is two to five times larger than that of caching and non-caching songbirds, seabirds and woodpeckers. This HF expansion in hummingbirds probably underlies their ability to remember the location, distribution and nectar content of flowers, but more detailed analyses are required to determine the extent to which this arises from an expansion of HF or a decrease in size of other brain regions.