Hummingbirds Pollinate Plants too!

Hummingbirds make fantastic pollinators because they feed so frequently. They visit up to 2,000 flowers a day. With their needle-like bill and long, forked tongues, hummingbirds can lick nectar and draw it up into their throats. Pollen gets stuck to their beaks and heads and is transferred from one flower to the next, aiding in plant propagation. Attract hummingbirds to your garden with plants that have brightly colored, tubular-shaped flowers, such as these natives: Salvia, Penstemon, Firebush, Honeysuckle and Carolina Jessamine. (Hummingbird photo by Dulcey Lima).

Nectar Robbers

 

Theft isn’t limited to our society; crime also exists in the world of bees in the form of nectar robbing. Carpenter and bumble bees are the most common thieves in this respect as they sometimes find themselves too big to fit inside tubular-shaped flowers. When this happens, a bee will bite the base of a petal and insert its tongue (proboscis) to drink the nectar. Scientists call this “robbing the nectar” because these clever insects are “cheating” pollination. But who can blame a hungry bee for performing this ingenious maneuver?