Sweet Birds - Drinking Sugar Leads to Convergent Evolution

Описание: Birds are so sweet! Especially the ones that live on sugar. Let's look at some of the ways different sugar-feeding birds have found to thrive! Please subscribe to continue learning what makes life AWESOME: https://BioBush.tv/subscribe

Birds face many challenges in their daily lives, and their bodies tend to be shaped to conquer their most common problems. For example, birds that swim a lot tend to have webbed feet. Birds that need to hide in trees tend to be brown or green.

But this leads to an interesting bit of biology. Two COMPLETELY unrelated animals can arrive at a similar body shape because it's a way to solve the same problem!

This is called convergent evolution, because the two animals are converging on the same solution from two different directions.

In this video we talk about a group of birds that drink sweet flower nectar. Nectar is an amazing food source- energy-rich and plentiful during certain times of the year. But it's stuck way down in a flower, and birds have hard beaks that keep them from applying suction. What to do?

Lots of unrelated bird groups have arrived at a similar solution- a brush-tipped tongue! We compare tongue shapes in many different nectar-drinking birds.

Whenever we talk about living things there are exceptions. And this is no exception. But it illustrates an important and interesting biological fact.

Tongue Image Sources
All images copyright their respective owners, used under fair use guidelines.
https://BioBush.tv/sunbirdtongue
https://BioBush.tv/birdtongues (honeycreeper and bananaquit)
https://BioBush.tv/honeyeatertongue


Bizarre Birds - https://BioBush.tv/birdbeaks

Ask a Zookeeper #1 https://BioBush.tv/aaz1

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Learn about some awesome birds in "Birds of Prey - Full Wildlife Documentary 2019"
   • Birds of Prey - Full Wildlife Documentary ...  
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