--- title: Hummingbirds Use Beaks to Stab Each Other in Throats, Study Shows description: Study shows for first time that beaks are used in male-male battles for mating territory. canonical: https://time.com/3557286/hummingbirds-beaks/ author: Jack Linshi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-04T22:17:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:13:33.656Z article:section: Science og:title: Male Hummingbirds Use Beaks to Stab Each Other in Throats, Study Shows og:description: Their long, sharp beaks aren't just for reaching flower nectar og:url: https://time.com/3557286/hummingbirds-beaks/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Male Hummingbirds Use Beaks to Stab Each Other in Throats, Study Shows twitter:description: Their long, sharp beaks aren't just for reaching flower nectar twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Male Hummingbirds Apparently Use Beaks to Stab Each Other in the Throat  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Nov 4, 2014 10:17 PM UTC  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Nov 4, 2014 10:17 PM UTC The long, sharp beaks of hummingbirds serve a purpose other than probing flowers for nectar, a new study found. Male [long-billed hermits](http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?avibaseid=273F3EBE3444F69B), which are large hummingbirds native to Central and South America, use their beaks to stab each other in the throat in territorial disputes, according to a [study](http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/10/17/beheco.aru182.abstract) published recently in _Behavioral Ecology_. The male-against-male battles are part of a type of mating ritual called ‘lekking,’ which occurs in order to have space to mate with females. “Once a female is in a territory, the male will court her with elaborate displays and [songs](http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/08/05/hummingbird-chirp-song). So in these species the males are constantly fighting to maintain the best territories,” Alejandro Rico-Guevara, the report’s co-author, said in a [press release](http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2014/11/fighting-for-females-the-evolution-of-a-hummingbird/). “We show here the first evidence that bills are also being shaped by sexual selection through male-male combat.” The findings suggest an alternative to the accepted theory that hummingbird beaks evolved to be so long and sharp because it helped them access flower nectar, according to the report. Instead, scientists believe that the reverse may be true: that flowers evolved in response to sharper, thinner hummingbird beaks. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3557286/hummingbirds-beaks/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3557286/hummingbirds-beaks/"},"headline":"Male Hummingbirds Apparently Use Beaks to Stab Each Other in the Throat","datePublished":"2014-11-04T22:17:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:13:33.656Z","description":"New research shows their long, sharp beaks aren't just for reaching flower nectar","url":"https://time.com/3557286/hummingbirds-beaks/","keywords":["animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Linshi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3557286/hummingbirds-beaks/","name":"Male Hummingbirds Apparently Use Beaks to Stab Each Other in the Throat"}}]}] ```