When hummingbirds show up in the garden looking for dinner, there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye. 
 
 Brightly colored hummers can beat their wings up to 50 times per second as they hover over flowers, extracting nectar. And while common belief among biologists has long held that their feeding is facilitated by ‘wicking’ – capillary action that allows liquid to flow through small spaces without benefit of gravity – a UConn study published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, debunks that theory. 
 
 The research, conducted by research scientist Alejandro Rico-Guevara and Professor Margaret Rubega from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Tai-Hsi Fan, associate professor of mechanical engineering, looked at 18 hummingbird species from seven of the nine main hummingbird groups throughout the Americas. They concluded that the ‘wicking theory’ is wrong, and that the bird’s tongue actually acts as a tiny pump. 
 
 Rico-Guevara explains that a hummingbird’s tongue, which can be stuck out about the same length as its beak, is tipped with two long skinny tubes, or grooves. Rather than wicking, he says, the nectar is drawn into the tongue by the elastic expansion of the grooves after they are squeezed flat by the beak. 
 
 The tongue structure is collapsed during the time it crosses the space between the bill tip and the nectar pool, but once the tip contacts the nectar surface, the supply of fluid allows the collapsed groove to gradually recover to a relaxed cylindrical shape as the nectar fills it. 
 
 When the hummingbird squeezes nectar off its tongue during protrusion, it is collapsing the grooves and loading elastic energy into the groove walls. That energy subsequently facilitates the pumping of more nectar. 
 
 Actually, everything is relative. When Rico-Guevara says the collapsed groove ‘gradually recovers’ as it fills with nectar, he is talking about an event that is infinitesimally brief, since the entire action takes place in less than a tenth of a second. 
 
 In fact, it is the speed that first made Rubega and Rico-Guevara skeptical about the role that wicking might play in the feeding process. They were convinced that the slow fill speed of capillary action would limit the hummingbird’s rate of absorbing nectar and thus its energy intake rate. This is where Fan’s expertise in fluid mechanics and biological transport came in handy. 
 
 “We could see the actual drinking mechanism through high speed video,” says Rico-Guevara, “but we couldn’t develop the fluid dynamics model needed to test our biophysical hypothesis.” In collaboration with Fan, an expert in fluid mechanics and biological transport phenomena, the biologists were able to test different hypotheses and validate the physics behind their explanation. 
 
 Rubega says most previous studies involving hummingbird feeding were conducted under artificial conditions in laboratories where the birds had access to feeders that had far more liquid available than would actually be found in flowers in the wild. 
 
 The research she and Rico-Guevara conducted involved filming free-living hummingbirds that had never been handled as they fed at modified transparent feeders that simulated the shape, nectar volumes, and concentrations of actual hummingbird-pollinated flowers. The data they collected from this wild population is the largest data set on hummingbird feeding mechanics to date. 
 
 Rubega says it’s important to understand evolution and the relationship between flowers and birds. She notes that flowers don’t give nectar away without expecting something in return. 
 
 “Nectar is kind of a bribe,” she says. “It’s payment for the hummingbird to come frequently enough so that they will go off and act as pollinators to other flowers of the same species. ” 
 
 Rico-Guevera adds that during their evolution, hummingbirds became what they are because of their skill at drinking nectar. 
 
 The researchers say their study found an excellent match between what mathematical models predicted and what they were observing through high-speed video. 
 
 “Our research shows how they really drink and provides the first mathematical tools to accurately model their energy intake,” says Rico-Guevara, “which will in turn inform our understanding of their foraging decisions and ecology.” 

 Recent research shows that the birds take in plant fluid, real or artificial, at ultra-high speeds using a pumping method – not a wicking one, as previously believed. 
 
 Did the ALS 'Ice Bucket Challenge' really help research? Scientists say yes. 
 
 Hummingbirds are named for the sound of their rapidly beating wings, but now their tongues have captured scientists' attention. 
 
 These tiny birds can suck 10 drops of nectar out of a flower every 15 milliseconds, researchers at the University of Connecticut recently discovered. For nearly two centuries, scientists have thought the birds used a much slower “wicking” technique, LiveScience reported. 
 
 It turns out that hummingbird tongues do not wick – they pump. 
 
 By capturing video footage of 18 species of hummingbirds drinking from artificial “flowers,” the research team – led by research scientist Alejandro Rico-Guevara, ecology and evolutionary biology professor Margaret Rubega, and mechanical engineering associate professor Tai-Hsi Fan – found that the birds’ tongues have tube-like grooves that rest in a collapsed state, but open and fill with nectar upon contact with flowers. 
 
 “The tongue works as an elastic micropump; fluid at the tip is driven into the tongue's grooves by forces resulting from re-expansion of a collapsed section,” the report says. 
 
 The study’s methodology surpasses that of previous hummingbird research, Professor Rubega said in a university news release, because it comes closer than ever to approximating real-life conditions. 
 
 In previous studies, captive birds sipped nectar from feeders in laboratories containing far more liquid than a real flower. This time, scientists filmed wild hummingbirds feeding from transparent feeders that mimic the shape, nectar amounts, and calorie concentrations of hummingbirds' favorite flowers. 
 
 The study has yielded the largest data set of any hummingbird study to date – the result of five years’ work. Dr. Rico-Guevara told LiveScience that building the transparent “flowers” was a challenging but essential part of the research, since “when the [hummingbird's] bill goes inside a flower, you don't see what is happening inside at all.” The design used transparent tubes filled with artificial nectar, with cameras set up nearby. 
 
 The next challenge was observing different species of hummingbirds. The only hummingbird found east of the Mississippi is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, so the researchers had to go further afield to gather a broad sample. By setting up shop in a number of locations across the Americas – including Connecticut, Texas, California, Ecuador, Brazil, and Colombia – they gathered footage of 32 different birds from 18 different species. 
 
 "I tried to get as many different kinds of hummingbirds as possible," Rico-Guevara told LiveScience. "Not just to get different species, but [also] the crazy ones, the extreme ones, just to be able to generalize what happens." 
 
 The discovery of the micro-pump method of feeding may lead scientists to revisit previous hummingbird research, Rico-Guevara said. Earlier studies indicate that some flowers produce diluted nectar, which would be helpful for hummingbirds feeding using capillary “wicking” as previously assumed, but which is unnecessary for micro-pump feeding. 
 
 The new study was published Wednesday in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 
 
 “Our research shows how they really drink and provides the first mathematical tools to accurately model their energy intake,” Rico-Guevara said in the news release, “which will in turn inform our understanding of their foraging decisions and ecology.” 

 Published on Aug 19, 2015 
 
 UConn researchers examined 18 hummingbird species throughout the Americas for a recent study on hummingbird tongues. A common belief among biologists has long held that their feeding is facilitated by ‘wicking’ – capillary action that allows liquid to flow through small spaces without benefit of gravity. However, UConn researchers Alejandro Rico-Guevara, Maragret Rubega and Tai-Hsi Fan concluded that the ‘wicking theory’ is wrong, and that the bird’s tongue actually acts as a tiny pump. For more information on the study, check out this link: http://today.uconn.edu/2015/08/hummin... 

 The slender hummingbird tongue has been misunderstood for more than 180 years, a new study finds. 
 
 Since 1833, scientists thought that hummingbird tongues used capillary action — a phenomenon in which liquid flows through narrow areas, even working against gravity — to slurp up floral nectar. Researchers got this intriguing (but wrong) idea because the birds have long groves on their tongues that look like open cylinders, said Alejandro Rico-Guevara, lead researcher of the new study and a research associate of functional morphology at the University of Connecticut. 
 
 But capillary action is slow, at least by hummingbird standards. Using high-speed videos, researchers in the new study determined that hummingbird tongues act as elastic micropumps, allowing the birds to feed at rapid speeds, Rico-Guevara said. [See Photos of Hummingbirds Sticking Out Their Tongues] 
 
 Most people are familiar with simple pumps — the drinking straw, for instance. When sipping a beverage through a straw, people contort their cheeks to create a vacuum in the straw and suction up the liquid, Rico-Guevara said. 
 
 The hummingbird's tongue works in a slightly similar way, but without a vacuum. After zipping toward a flower, the hummingbird flattens its outstretched tongue, and "the compressed tongue remains flattened until it contacts the nectar," the researchers wrote in the study. "After contact with the nectar surface, the tongue reshapes filling entirely with nectar." 
 
 A juvenile male black-throated mango hummingbird in Finca El Colibrí Gorriazul, Fusagasugá, Colombia. Without the use of any muscles or nerves, a hummingbird's tongue can rapidly expand to pull in nectar from a flower. Credit: Kristiina Hurme 
 
 To pull in the nectar, the top of the tongue (the part closer to the mouth) bends, so it's no longer flat, and this bending stores elastic energy, Rico-Guevara said. That energy helps draw the nectar out of the flower and into the bird's mouth, he said. 
 
 "We show that the tongue works as an elastic micropump," the researchers said. "Fluid at the tip is driven into the tongue's grooves by forces resulting from re-expansion of a collapsed section" of the tongue closer to the mouth. 
 
 This fast technique allows the bird to drain between five and 10 drops of nectar from a flower within 15 milliseconds (about 100th of a second), Rico-Guevara said. 
 
 Transparent flowers 
 
 Setting up the experiment took five years, Rico-Guevara said, and involved constructing "flowers" researchers could look into. 
 
 "When the [hummingbird's] bill goes inside a flower, you don't see what is happening inside at all," Rico-Guevara told Live Science. "My first challenge was to make see-through flowers." 
 
 He used tiny glass tubes, filled them with artificial nectar and set up the high-speed video cameras near the tubes. This setup was repeated in a number of places, including Connecticut, Texas, California, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil. 
 
 "I tried to get as many different kinds of hummingbirds as possible," Rico-Guevara said. "Not just to get different species, but [also] the crazy ones, the extreme ones, just to be able to generalize what happens" when they feed. 
 
 In all, he filmed 96 foraging bouts, which included 32 birds from 18 species licking up artificial nectar from the transparent tubes. 
 
 A male black-throated mango (Anthracothorax nigricollis) hummingbird in Finca El Colibrí Gorriazul, Fusagasugá, Colombia. Hummingbirds can extend their long, skinny tongues twice as far as the bill, which helps them reach nectar deep inside flowers. Credit: Kristiina Hurme 
 
 The researchers spent hours examining the footage. In 2011, they published a study explaining that the hummingbird tongue is not a capillary tube, but instead works by trapping fluid. However, they still didn't know exactly how it worked. In the new study, the researchers explained that the tongue is a tiny pump that can pull in nectar. 
 
 Rico-Guevara developed two computer models with Tai-Hsi Fan, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and expert on fluid dynamics at the University of Connecticut, to determine how the hummingbird's tongue works. One model represented capillary action, and the other emulated the elastic micropump. [Images: Beautiful Hummingbirds of the World] 
 
 "We translated all of the pieces into mathematics to create predictions that we could test," Rico-Guevara said. "The match was really great with the elastic micropump one, so we were very happy." 
 
 The models showed that if hummingbirds used capillarity in the wild, they would have to slow way down, he said. The elastic micropump method allows hummingbirds to lick a flower up to 20 times per second, or at 20 hertz. 
 
 "But if they were using capillarity, they would have to slow it down to 5 hertz," Rico-Guevara said. "Which is still pretty fast, but when you're out there and you have so much pressure [to survive], every millisecond counts." 
 
 The finding may prompt scientists to give existing hummingbird research a second look. For instance, earlier studies suggested that some flowers developed dilute nectar, which is easier for hummingbirds to consume via capillary action than is concentrated nectar. 
 
 But if hummingbirds don't use capillary action, then it's unclear why certain flowers have dilute nectar, Rico-Guevara said. (Dilution levels don't matter much for the elastic micropump method, he said.) 
 
 "We need to develop the models again and see why those flowers have those concentrations in general," Rico-Guevara said. 
 
 The study will be published online Wednesday (Aug. 19) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 
 
 Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. 

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– Hummingbirds beat their wings approximately 50 times per second, but that's nothing compared to how fast they can drink. A study out of the University of Connecticut debunks nearly 200 years of scientific thinking on how hummingbirds accomplish that task, with results showing the tiny birds can sip up to 10 drops of nectar every 15 milliseconds, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Scientists have long believed hummingbirds drank by wicking, a process that "allows liquid to flow through small spaces without benefit of gravity," explains UConn Today. Researchers were skeptical of this relatively slow method because it would limit hummingbirds' energy intake, and they set off on a five-year study to find out how the birds really do their drinking. "It turns out that hummingbird tongues do not wick—they pump," sums up the Monitor. Researchers took video of 18 hummingbird species drinking from specially made artificial flowers in the wilds of the US, Ecuador, Brazil, and Colombia. They discovered that hummingbirds drink by using their tongues as "elastic micropumps." This video shows the process, and LiveScience explains it like so: "After zipping toward a flower, the hummingbird flattens its outstretched tongue, and 'the compressed tongue remains flattened until it contacts the nectar,' the researchers wrote in the study. 'After contact with the nectar surface, the tongue reshapes, filling entirely with nectar.'" The last move involves a deft bend of the tongue to pull in the nectar, and it all takes place in less than a tenth of a second, according to UConn Today—an impressive feat for something thinner than a fishing line. (Meanwhile, a tongue-rolling myth in humans has been debunked.)