Agradecimentos: BIS is supported by the Natural Environment Research Council as part of the Cambridge Earth System Science NERC DTP [NE/L002507/1]. JVB was funded by CERL – Engineer Research and Development Center. PKM was funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP grant no. 2015/21457‐4)....

Agradecimentos: BIS is supported by the Natural Environment Research Council as part of the Cambridge Earth System Science NERC DTP [NE/L002507/1]. JVB was funded by CERL – Engineer Research and Development Center. PKM was funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP grant no. 2015/21457‐4). PAC was funded by the David Lack studentship from the British Ornithologists’ Union and Wolfson College, University of Oxford. OHMG was funded by the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT 417094) and the Doctoral Program of the Instituto de Ecología, A.C. (INECOL). CL was funded by the ESDEPED‐UAT grant. MAM acknowledges the Consejo Nacional para Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (Costa Rica), German Academic Exchange Service and the research funding program ‘LOEWE‐Landes‐Offensive zur Entwicklung Wissenschaftlich ö–konomischer Exzellenz’ of Hesse's Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts (Germany). ROP was funded by CONACyT (project 258364). MAR was supported by the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) within the BIOTA/FAPESP, The Biodiversity Institute Program (<www.biota.org.br>) and the ‘Parcelas Permanentes’ project, as well as by Coordenação de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Fundo de Apoio ao Ensino e à Pesquisa (FAEP)/Funcamp/Unicamp and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) of Brazil. LCR was supported by CNPq and Capes. MS was funded by CNPq (grant no. 302781/2016‐1). AMMG is supported through a Marie Skłodowska‐Curie Individual Fellowship (H2020‐MSCA‐IF‐2016‐704409). LVD was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (grants NE/K015419/1 and NE/N014472/1). AMMG, JS, CR and BD thank the Danish National Research Foundation for its support of the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate (grant no. DNRF96). WJS is funded by Arcadia

Abundant pollinators are often more generalised than rare pollinators. This could be because abundant species have more chance encounters with potential interaction partners. On the other hand, generalised species could have a competitive advantage over specialists, leading to higher abundance....

Abundant pollinators are often more generalised than rare pollinators. This could be because abundant species have more chance encounters with potential interaction partners. On the other hand, generalised species could have a competitive advantage over specialists, leading to higher abundance. Determining the direction of the abundance-generalisation relationship is therefore a 'chicken-and-egg' dilemma. Here we determine the direction of the relationship between abundance and generalisation in plant-hummingbird pollination networks across the Americas. We find evidence that hummingbird pollinators are generalised because they are abundant, and little evidence that hummingbirds are abundant because they are generalised. Additionally, most patterns of species-level abundance and generalisation were well explained by a null model that assumed interaction neutrality (interaction probabilities defined by species relative abundances). These results suggest that neutral processes play a key role in driving broad patterns of generalisation in animal pollinators across large spatial scales

CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQ

302781/2016‐1

COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPES

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESP

2015/21457‐4

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