Adaptations: The Head
Smart for a Pea Brain
for labeled photo
how tiny a hummingbird is, its head is relatively large to fit as big
a brain as possible. Hummingbirds are much smarter than people
used to think, and can adapt very well to many strange situations while
they are migrating through unfamiliar territory, thanks to their oversized
curiosity and intelligence.
have fairly large eyes capable of detecting untraviolet colors
that human eyes simply can't see. That makes it easy for them to detect
flowers with ultraviolet colors that we can't see except through special
lenses. Many flowers marked with ultraviolet colors are pollinated by
hummingbirds, and their color may be an adaptation to help hummingbirds
notice them. Hummer eyes are not specifically adapted for night vision,
but during migration if a Ruby-throated Hummingbird finds itself over
the Gulf of Mexico with no place to rest after dark, it can stay on
course, possibly using star patterns for navigation.
- A hummingbird's
bill is long and thin, making it easy to probe into the throats
of flowers for food. It can open its mouth wide enough to snatch little
insects that are flying in the air or walking on leaves.
tongue through a microscope
tongue can stick out about as far as its bill is long. The hummer's
very long tongue is wrapped around its skull on a special structure
called the hyoid apparatus, and the middle part is very stretchy
so it can extend. The part of the tongue that sticks out is tubular
like a drinking straw, with a fringed tip that quickly soaks up nectar
or sugar water. But it's so very thin that to our eyes it looks like
a strand of thread. To see the fringes and the tubular structure, you
must look at it through a microscope.
- A hummingbird
face is little enough to poke into flowers, so that pollen sticks
to the facial feathers. This way hummers help pollinate the flowers
that feed them, ensuring that there will be food in the future.
color on the throat and sometimes crown of many hummers gives
them a strong display in face-offs with other hummers.
- Its ears
are sensitive to high and low-pitched sounds; hummingbirds use the hum
of their fast-beating wings in territorial and courtship displays because
they can hear these sounds so well. The ears, behind the eyes, are covered
by feathers to keep dust and pollen grains out.
Imagine that you are a Ruby-throated or Rufous Hummingbird experiencing
the world through hummingbird senses. Write a page in your journal as if
it were a hummingbird diary entry for a typical day during spring migration.
(Of course you'll have to pretend you're the world's first literate hummingbird!)
Would you pay attention to different things than a human would?