Do Hummingbirds Have a Sense of Smell?

Good question!

Look around, through your favorite hummingbird research literature, and you will probably find most researchers willing to say that hummingbirds have little or no sense of smell (olfactory sense), or that any evidence (supporting or contradicting their olfactory sense) is completely inconclusive at best.

At this risk of ruffling feathers, we (at Dr. JB’s) think that their olfactory sense is stronger than most of the literature would suggest. But in the interest of always supporting the scientific methods of asserting an hypothesis and testing it with empirically agreeable, measurable controls and variables, we would like to put this to you. Any interest in finding out? Any interest in testing?

Here is the basis for our hypothesis - a simple matter of limited yet convincing experience with a prior product-development project: Initially, Dr. JB was developing a gel to repel ants and bees from hummingbird feeders. We subsequently scrapped this project because, although our repellent was tested to be of the lowest possible toxicity and containing all natural scents and elements, we were not comfortable in providing direction to apply the gel near the feeder holes, since we could not guarantee that it would always be applied correctly (in a way that could not contact the birds, toxic or not). As a result of our testing, however, we discovered a highly observable attraction of hummingbirds — i.e., attraction of birds to feeders where hummingbirds were previously not feeding, and especially to new sites, and especially in comparison to nearby feeders that did not contain the gel. As for the gel itself, we will only say that it is very similar to some very common repellents used by humans (but again, of the lowest toxicity) — repellents that are marketed on the appeal of their fragrance. No more about that for now.

During those early stages of testing, Dr. JB was strongly encouraged by friends to market the gel as an attractant to hummingbirds, as well as a repellent of bees and ants (which it succeeded very well in doing). But we are very reluctant to make such claims without testing that equals the quality of Dr. JB’s experiences with clinical trials in medicine.

So, we had sufficient experience to believe that the olfactory sense of hummingbirds is stronger than popularly believed, but we scrapped that project and concentrated on the quality and marketing of our Clean Feeder. Now, we’d like to pose the question — if we apply the gel in a way that it is impossible to contact our hummingbird friends (i.e., within an ant cup above the feeder, which will serve dual purposes), is there any interest in helping us test this hypothesis? It should be easy enough to establish the test criteria; feeders place near each other, with and without the gel, filled simultaneously, etc.

Let us know of your thoughts, or of any similar experiences and questions regarding the olfactory sense of hummingbirds.

Happy Feeding,

Chris Whelan

Add comment February 16th, 2008