Amazing images reveal hummingbirds are covered in MITES

The incredible hitchhiking MITES that travel from flower to flower by jumping on the beaks of birds

By Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com

Published: 15:22 EDT, 3 August 2017 | Updated: 15:32 EDT, 3 August 2017

The small insects on this Hummingbird crown are flower mites, they eat pollen and nectar in tropical flowers.

 At first glance, hummingbirds are one of the most captivating animals on the planet with their incredible flying abilities.

However, look closer and you can see them in a whole new light - and a taxi service for mites.

These incredible images, taken by Wildlife researcher and photographer Sean Graesser in Costa Rica, show the birds and their passengers up close. 

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Graesser used a Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens to capture the detailed shots of mites on hummingbird beaks in Costa Rica this past winter. 

Graesser, who in 2010 co-founded the Nicoya Peninsula Research Station, a volunteer-based facility on Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast, is hoping to help protect the birds by showing that Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and other migratory species return each winter to the same small patch of forest.

Graesser, who also works as a field biologist for Audubon Connecticut, photographs many of the birds he bands, and he believes those images can be just as important as the research itself. 

'At some point I found that I was seeing all these amazing things that not a lot of people were seeing,' he told Aubodon. 

Mites on the beak of a Crowned Woodnymph in Costa Rica. The photography project is part of a large effort to safeguard the area's rare species

A Rufous-tailed Hummingbird also pictured in costa Rica. When a hummingbird pauses to drink from a flower, the hungry mites scramble up its beak and latch on to its nostrils

The flower mites catch rides on a number of species. Pictured, a Silver-throated Tanager with mites around its eyes. The incredible images were taken using a Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens in Costa Rica this past winter

The mite's mission is a tough one. 

They can walk between flowers on the same plant, but when their local food supply runs low, they turn to animals for help.

Every flower mite is adapted to munch the pollen and drink the nectar of a single plant species, and there are flower mites that travel from blossom to blossom on birds, bats, bees, and beetles. 

When the birds arrive at a flower, they have one or two seconds to board, and the same amount of time to leave. 

When a hummingbird pauses to drink from a flower, the hungry mites scramble up its beak and latch on to its nostrils. 

'That’s where the olfactory information is,' Colwell says.  

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Flower Mites on a Green Hermit. When a hummingbird pauses to drink from a flower, the hungry mites scramble up its beak and latch on to its nostrils

A Crowned Woodnymph, another of the birds common to Costa Rica

When they smell their preferred blossom, they sprint down the bird’s beak and compete with it for the nectar.

Mites can eat up to half a flower’s nectar, so the birds have to visit more flowers to fuel up.

The mites can, for their size, move faster than a cheetah.

'Virtually all tropical insects I’ve seen have mites riding on them,' Colwell said .

Astonishingly, Colwell’s research shows that only about one out of every 200 flower mites lands at the wrong flower - which can leave them stranded and open to attack. 

A Black-faced Solitaire. IIn the wet mountain forests of Costa Rica, the slate-gray bird sings as it moves furtively in the dense woodlands

A scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant. The images were all captured in Costa Rica, and have already gained a cult following on Instagram

A closeup of a golden-hooded Tanager, with mites seen around its eyes. The mites use smell to work out which flowers to jump onto, and which to avoid, which would leave them stranded

An Emerald Tanager also covered in the mites, which will latch onto anything from birds to beetles to get a ride

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