[EBB Sightings] Hummingbird Tongues

Newly fledged young ones, who aren't old enough to hawk for insects yet, 
use this long tongue trick to glean tree branches and twigs. It's quite 
impressive.

Tom Condit

At 03:29 PM 12/5/05 -0800, Hilary Powers wrote:
>Walking up Bellevue from Lake Merritt today, I stopped to watch a female 
>Anna's hummingbird helicoptering around a tree the way they do, 
>occasionally perching to survey the world. Once when she stopped, she put 
>out her tongue two or three times like a snake - and it easily extended at 
>least a bill's length beyond the tip of the bill, and maybe more, looking 
>like a dark orange thread (though that might have been the light).
>Anyone else seen this? Is it something they do often? I'd never seen it 
>before.
>--
>- Hilary Powers - hilary at powersedit.com - Oakland CA -
>-   Freelance copyediting and developmental editing  -
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Tom Condit
tomcondit at igc.org