Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds (1871) is an oil on mahogany panel picture by Martin Johnson Heade acquired by the National Gallery of Art in 1982. Inspired perhaps by the works of Charles Darwin and Frederic Edwin Church, Heade planned to produce a deluxe book in the 1860s depicting Brazilian hummingbirds in tropical settings, and, to that end, created a series of 40 small pictures called "The Gems of Brazil". The project was abandoned, but Heade retained his interest in hummingbirds and continued to paint them in combination with orchids and jungle backgrounds through the
Flower constancy could require substantial investment and switching to other flower types or species could be inefficient and consequently non-adaptive. Concentrating and feeding on one particular flower type increases the insect’s efficiency to obtain nectar from that flower type with respect to other flower types that are available. The costly information hypothesis explains flower constancy based on the fact that insects stay constant and feed on a one flower type because they know they are obtaining a reliable reward: nectar. The insect therefore does not venture to feed on other flower types because it cannot predict the amount of nectar in other