Image showing a white-vented plumeleteer (Chalybura buffonii) drinking from a feeder at the Colibrí Gorriazul Research Center in Colombia.Kristiina Hurme
Hummingbird bills - their long, thin beaks - look a little like drinking straws. The frenetic speed at which they get nectar out of flowers and backyard feeders may give the impression that the bills act as straws, too. But new research shows just how little water, or nectar, that comparison holds.
Still from a high-speed video of an Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna) opening the tip of its bill and extending its tongue to drink at a transparent feeder. The team also collected data from Amazilia hummingbirds (Amazilis amazilia), white-vented plumeleteers (Chalybura buffonii), white-necked jacobins (Florisuga mellivora), short-tailed woodstars (Myrmia micrura) and long-billed hermits (Phaethornis longirostris).Alejandro Rico-Guevara
In a paper published online Nov. 27 by the Proceedings of the Royal Society Interface, an international team led by Alejandro Rico-Guevara, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Washington, reveals the surprising flexibility of the hummingbird bill. The team discovered that a drinking hummingbird rapidly opens and shuts different parts of its bill simultaneously, engaging in an intricate and highly coordinated dance with its tongue to draw up nectar at lightning speeds.
To human eyes, these movements are barely perceptible. But for hummingbirds, they're a lifeline.
