Natural History Wanderings

ScienceDaily reported on how using high-speed video and artificial flowers they were able to observe hummingbird and flower relationships that lead to pollination. It was learned how much energy hummingbirds use when hovering to feed from flowers of different orientations.

They found that even though flowers that hang down require 10% more energy expenditure from the hummingbirds than flowers that were horizontal, most hummingbird pollinated flowers did hang down. This led researchers to speculate that flowers that hung down must have other advantages such as being less accessible to other insects and losing less nectar to rain. Read more at ScienceDaily High-speed video and artificial flowers shed light on mysteries of hummingbird-pollinated flowers