Today’s adaptations book cover reveal is for the bird book – Spit Nests, Puke Power, and Other Brilliant Bird Adaptations (Nomad Press, August 2020). I love birds, but researching this book made me appreciate them even more.

I have always found hummingbirds  especially fascinating. Yet my research uncovered new findings about how hummingbirds feed that made me go WHOA. Obviously their long, thin beak allows them to get inside a flower to reach the nectar. They also have a long, thin tongue. Yet it doesn’t work like a straw. Instead, they use the tongue to lap up the nectar, as much as 20 times per second! Researchers used a “glass” flower filled with nectar so they could film the feeding in slow motion. The results are incredible.