Long Misunderstood, Hummingbird Tongue Works Like Micropump

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 a