DAY 330: HOOKED ON SUGAR

-->

Everything about hummingbirds is rapid. An iridescent blur to the human eye, their movements can be captured with clarity only by high-speed video. Slowed down on replay, their wings thrum like helicopter blades as they hover near food. Their hearts beat 20 times a second and their tongues dart 17 times a second to slurp from a feeding station.

It takes only three licks of their forked, tube-like tongues to reject water when

they expect nectar. They pull their beaks back, shake their heads and spit out 

the tasteless liquid. They also are not fooled by the sugar substitute that sweetens most diet cola.

From Harvard Medical School.

DAY 329: COLOURFUL HOOPOE EGGS

-->

Preen gland secretion causes hoopoes’ eggs to change colour, possibly giving signals about the robustness of the mother bird, researchers have found.

Hoopoe females use cosmetics on their eggs - and the eggs gradually change colour when they are incubated, from bluish-grey to a more saturated greenish-brown. This happens because secretion from the preen gland – a substance birds use to preen and protect their feathers – is transferred from the female hoopoe’s gland to her eggs directly with the bill and by means of belly feathers.

(Springer Science + Business Media)