Female hummingbirds do not relocate rewards using colour cues

Males generally outperform females in spatial tasks. This difference in spatial performance may reflect differences in cue preference because males often use both spatial cues (distance and direction) and feature cues, whereas females prefer to use feature cues. However, studies in birds are few and results are conflicting. As wild male rufous hummingbirds, Selasphorus rufus, prefer to use spatial cues to relocate a rewarded flower, in the present study we tested free-flying wild female hummingbirds of three different species (rufous, white-eared, Hylocharis leucotis, and magnificent hummingbird, Eugenes fulgens) and males of one species (white-eared) for their cue preference in the same task in which rufous males have been tested previously. Birds were allowed to feed once from a four-flower array in which only one flower was rewarded. When the birds returned, the colour and the spatial cue designating the rewarded flower had been dissociated. Although we had expected females to visit the flower of the correct colour (feature cue) first, during the test phase most of the birds (males and females) went to the correct spatial location (spatial cue). It appears, then, that preference for spatial cues is not specific to males and it seems more likely to depend on the relevance or value of a cue to the solution of the task. •Contrary to expectation female hummingbirds use a spatial cue to relocate a reward.•Our study shows that sex differences in cue use are not pervasive.•We suggest that cue use is task-dependent rather than being a fixed strategy.