hummingbird tongue--for those that have never seen one

not the best capture but while looking through some files i ran accross it and thought it may be of interest to some.

Very interesting. I wonder how much control they have over it?

not sure mitch. i have studied loads of these birds up close and this is the only one i have ever seen like this. wouldn't have seen it at all without the camera!

if you look closely you can see the tongue is actually about 2x as long as what is backlighted.

you can see the really feint outline across her belly to the opposite side. tremnedous length!

i have plenty of shots with it sticking out 1/2 inch and several with a mouth totally open but have never seen anything else like this.

one of the reasons i love these little jewells so much. there are virtually no "experts" on these birds so most of the stuff i photograph is groundbreaking!