For any birdwatcher in South America seeing Hummingbirds is a ‘must’ and the 320 species represents for the birder and wildlife photographer a constant array of incredibly beautiful birds and for the ornithologist a wonderful example of adaptive radiation.  Paula and I have spent some time in the Salta and Jujuy provinces of north western Argentina and  here we came across the World’s biggest Hummingbird.

The Giant Hummingbird is the largest of any of the species.  We glimpsed Giant Hummingbirds several times on our travels, most of the time the birds zipped above us, high and away.

One day though we camped by a small lake in a eco region known as the pre-puna, characterized by dry scrub-steppe with a scattering of columnar cacti.  Andean mountains towering up to 4000 meters formed an amphitheater for the lake, around which blossomed a luxuriant vegetation, in particular the a shrub with long yellow corolla.

It was from these flowers that the hummingbirds were feeding and demonstrated how many plants have evolved in parallel with their chief pollinators.

The time of the year was November, springtime and the birds were engaging in an activity we had never seen before. When two birds met they would circle round each other then spiral high into the sky, round and round they circled, gradually getting closer and closer until the birds facing each other and so high in the heavens we could barely see them, engaged in a mock ‘sword-fight’ with their long bills, then they would part and disappear in opposite directions.  We were not sure weather this was display or territorial aggression.    The species is about the size of a swallow, the biggest of all Hummingbirds and for South American birdwatchers and birders who visit the Andes, one of their most searched for birds.