Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's hummingbirds have dramatically expanded their range by exploiting human environments. Originally limited to California's Channel Islands, they now occupy the Pacific coast from Mexico to British Columbia. This expansion followed the spread of ornamental gardens, hummingbird feeders, and year-round flowering exotic plants.

The expansion demonstrates how anthropogenic resource subsidy enables survival beyond natural limits. Without human-provided resources, Anna's hummingbirds couldn't survive northern winters - their metabolic requirements exceed what natural vegetation provides. Artificial feeding creates year-round resource availability that supports permanent populations.

The business parallel applies to companies expanding through platform subsidy. Businesses that couldn't survive on natural market revenue - apps subsidized by platform payments, restaurants subsidized by delivery platforms, media subsidized by advertising networks - expand beyond their natural range through artificial resource flows. The 'hummingbird feeder' of platform subsidy enables existence in otherwise hostile environments.

Anna's hummingbirds also demonstrate dependency risk. Populations now depend on continued human resource provision; removing feeders and gardens would cause population crashes in expanded ranges. Platform-dependent companies face similar risks - subsidy withdrawal would reveal unsustainable unit economics that were masked by artificial support.