How does a hummingbird drink from deep flowers?

Have you ever sniffed a flower shaped like a long, thin trumpet? Deep down at the bottom, the flower holds a sweet drink. It is called nectar, which means the sugary juice inside a flower.

A hummingbird is a tiny bird that loves to drink nectar. But the nectar sits far down inside the deep flower. How does a hummingbird drink from deep flowers?

First, the hummingbird flies up close to the flower. Its wings beat fast, back and forth. Now it is hovering, which means staying still in the air while flapping. Hovering keeps its face right at the flower without landing.

While hovering, the hummingbird pushes its long, thin beak into the flower to get close to the nectar. The beak slides down the narrow flower tube like a needle. Still, the nectar sits a little deeper than the beak can go. What do you think comes out of the beak next?

Out comes a long, skinny tongue! The hummingbird stretches it past the end of its beak to reach the bottom. Down it goes, right into the nectar.

The tip of the tongue splits into two thin halves. When they touch the nectar, the halves open wide and the nectar rushes in. Then they curl shut around the sweet drop and hold it.

Now the hummingbird pulls its tongue back into its beak. The beak squeezes the nectar off the tongue. That way the bird can swallow every sweet drop.

Then out goes the tongue again, and back, and out again. Lick, lick, lick, faster than you can blink! Each tiny lick brings up a little more nectar, and the bird gets a full drink.

A hovering hummingbird pokes in its beak and licks the deep nectar with its tongue. Lick after lick, its long tongue carries the nectar up into its beak.

With its wings still beating fast, the tiny bird pulls its beak out of the trumpet flower. Off it zips, to find another deep flower full of sweet nectar.