Mexican urban gardens fight hummingbirds' extinction

Mexicans have created more than a hundred urban gardens, most of them in the capital Mexico City, in an attempt to attract hummingbirds that have seen their natural habitat gradually destroyed as cities sprawl.

The country is home to 58 different species but half of its 13 endemic species are now at risk of extinction as suitable habitats are shrinking because of human settlements and even climate change.

"When cities grow, we're removing forests, we're removing the vegetation that hummingbirds use to feed, to reproduce," said Claudia Rodriguez, a biologist working on the "Urban Gardens" project. It has led to the creation of 149 gardens.

"If hummingbirds disappear, the diversity of plants decreases and in the long term the ecosystem will end up poorer," Rodriguez said, adding that it was the most important pollinating bird in the Americas.