Green-crowned brilliant hummingbird with giant thistle, Cerro de la Muerte, Costa Rica

© adrian hepworth/Alam

Hum-bly yours. Green-crowned brilliant hummingbird

Featured here are the small heroes who help plants flourish! These creatures transport pollen to help plants reproduce. While some plants are self-pollinating or pollinated by wind or water, the majority of them are fertilised with the help of bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, birds—like the green-crowned brilliant hummingbird in today's image—and even bats. Green-crowned brilliant hummingbirds inhabit various landscapes such as the interior, edges and clearings of humid sub-montane and montane forests, mature secondary forests and gardens. In Costa Rica, they are typically found at elevations between 700 and 2,200 metres, though occasionally as low as 100 metres.