Thursday, January 31, 2008

An Oasis of Knowledge in My Desert of Ignorance















Thank you, Good Morning America...thank you, Stanford University.
You have filled my empty "Hummingbird-tumbler" to a drinkable level.
Today you taught me that the male Anna hummingbird likes to impress female hummers in mating season by making a noise that is four octaves higher than middle C.
They fly up over 100 feet to commence a dive-bomb pattern that allows it's tail feathers to create such a "come-hither" sound that females will encourage this dapper dude-bird into her nest.

Somebody actually studied this phenomenon over a two year time span and plucked the tail feathers off a poor fella ~ then rigged a wind tunnel in the lab to simulate this sound. We were told that the feathers grow back in 5 weeks ~ but, uh...what about his libido? He might be humming a different tune!

Whomever wants a job that studies this stuff, raise your wing....

No comments: