Priorities for Future Research

Very little is known about the natural history of the Tufted Coquette, apart from its distribution and basic information on its foraging behavior. Additional research should focus on such topics as age at first breeding, life span and survivorship, dispersal, population regulation, molts, population density, and sexual behavior. Another research need is on the dietary choices of the coquette, as it is unclear why they choose flowers that otherwise rely on insects and non-hummingbird pollinators. These are likely less energetically lucrative than other flowers, so it would be interesting to learn why the coquettes focus on these sources.