High-Speed Video Shows How Hummingbirds Really Drink

By Dave Mosher May 2, 2011 | 3:30 pm | Categories: Animals, Video

New high-speed videos of hummingbirds overturn nearly two centuries of conventional wisdom on how they drink.

Researchers previously thought tube-like channels in their tongues sucked up fluid by capillary action. But the new analysis shows that their tongues actually trap nectar by curling around it.

“The first time I saw these videos, they blew my mind,” said ornithologist Alejandro Rico-Guevara of the University of Connecticut, co-author of a study published May 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “I had studied the tongue’s structure in detail, but had no idea it could do something like this. We had to create a new model to explain it.”


video at link

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/05/hummingbird-tongue-drinking/

:hi:

I've watched them at the feeders & flowers in complete amazement for HOURS.
Now, I know what they are doing!