Brain Soda Podcast - Episode 17 - The Letter of the Day is Hummingbird

Episode Date: May 27, 2023

On this week's episode we'll be discussing the felt creations of Jim Hensen and the beautiful world of hummingbirds! 

Brained soda Welcome everyone to the one, the only, the inappropriately eating fruit. Brain Soda Podcast. I am your host Kyle. Join here today by my co-host, Brad. How's it going? And Frog is still out on his adventure. Today, we will be discussing hummingbirds but first Brad it's time to play

the music. It is time to light the lights! Okay, let me place and hold on give me a second. Do you not get the reference? I don't. God! What is this reference to? Today we're gonna be talking about Jim Henson's creation of the Muppet Show. Seriously?

Really? Yes. Absolutely. As I referenced the theme song. Okay. By late 73, Brad Jim Henson had been in television and puppetry concurrently for almost 20 years. Wow. For 20 years before the Muppets. He was already like... Yes. To answer your question before you even stated. Yes. Henson

actually found like an ad to be on a local television station around the Maryland area. His dad was a member of the Department of Agriculture and they like moved back and forth him, his brother, his mom, and obviously his dad, between Mississippi, his birthplace, and Maryland. He found an ad for a puppeteer to be on television, went to his local library, rented two books, and became like the most famous puppeteer of possibly all time. I'm not lying. So he had no training at all? No, he just read two puppeteers.

Pretty much. Pretty much, man. It is honestly one of those things that I very much understand there's a certain extent to like flippantly talk about Jim Henson but realistically when you talk about who this guy is and was like I want to be on TV, I'll go learn puppetry and did it with two library books. It is one of those things of surmounting the odds and taking what you have to do. So that like,

there's gotta be something. Like did he make the puppets too? Yeah. So was he like an artist or something before then? So he had like really became enthusiastic about like set design and things like that so I would say and And to be fair like him and his brother would build model aircraft and radio and stuff like that So there is a a tinkerer there. You know what I mean?

There is there was someone who is a hand on creative. Oh, certainly certainly. Yeah Man, that just sounds like yeah so he just like rented two library books. Exactly. It was like oh this is how you do it huh. Okay cool. And what this is like in the 70s you said? No no our story is gonna start in late 1973. It's like the mid 50s and he's like in high school about to start going to college at the University of Maryland Okay, just as a note though Henson's not only found his wealth He's found his wife and the mother of his children and the avenue of an art form like

Not to say that Henson was dismissive Puppetry, but like it was second to the television spots, to the set design and production work that he really was enthusiastic about. Through doing it for X amount of time, he found it to be an art form in his eyes and saw the artistry of puppetry. Now a few years before 1973 though at the very end of 1969, if not his most noted work, one of his most noted works had premiered on what is now PBS but was then called net. And that is Sesame Street. While Sesame Street was a great effort for Hanson because he could do so many of these inserts, he also like did some illustrations and things like that, so like creative efforts that like helped spurred on the attention grabbing nature you would need to make for Sesame Street, right? There started to become more of a need for Henson during the initial market testing or whatever you'd want to call it because like the on the street segments

which was just a regular cast of people and kids like didn't hold kids attention spans. Have you ever seen a kid about to watch a movie even if it is a children's film, but it's like, didn't hold kids' attention spans. Have you ever seen a kid about to watch a movie? Even if it is a children's film, but it's like largely shot on camera and they're like, it's a people movie. Oh yeah, definitely. You have to catch their attention. Was he, what part of it?

He was like the writer of Sesame Street. There were actually people already in television who were working towards something akin to Sesame Street. Henson was brought into the room and like by my research like literally just kind of sat in the back of the room and just took it all in, right? So in like the like he was in the room where it happened like to kind of quote him. I was wondering whatever you were going to quote me, I was going to. Um, I still listen to it.

Yeah, I would, no, but I would, but I would agree with that. Like, like the people who were involved with the initial concept were like, yeah, I wonder if television could be used to educate children, look at the way sex and violence are incorporated into television, da da da da da da da. And then, Hanson's brought into the room, kind of sheepishly sits in the corner in the back, and like, is very hands-off and observant of it to begin. And then, okay yeah, I can make all the stuff for you. You know what I mean?

Like, I'm sure in his hat, he's just sitting there once it all gets laid out. It's like, I could do this and that. So he's more of like, he's making the muppets. That's what he's brought in. Yes, but I mean, his illustrative work is used heavily in Sesame Street too, early Sesame Street. But they needed more of his

muppets and his troop and things like that because the on the street segments would just regular people would like, it lose kids. And they were like, okay, Jim, we need some felt to talk to people. And he's like, okay, it's usually at least one, I would say like looking at modern Sesame Street, like the Old Sesame Street is actually pretty different, but it's usually the one person and then multiple muppets, you know, it's not. Right, and with the casting designated to be on the street,

and that would be Oscar the Grouch Big Bird. And Carol Spinney was the guy who was brought on to do Oscar and Big Bird. Oscar and Big Bird? Yeah. I bring up Sesame Street because it's not what we're talking about, but it definitely influences what is happening in Henson's it's funny to me that Henson's puppetry, previous to this, was used in two prominent places as ads for Wilkins' coffee, which often were violent. Like, what do you mean by violent?

Okay, so I'm gonna give you a breakdown of how these commercials usually went. Like, you would have Wilkins, who was the spokesperson and fan of Wilkins' coffee. And then you would have Wilkins, a kind of, kind of, cramudgently, non-fan of Wilkins' coffee. And like, here's a good example kind of cramudgently non-fan of Wilkins coffee. And like, here's a good example of one of them that I watched. The Wilkins walks up to the window of this house

and goes, hey, you got any Wilkins coffee in there? And you see steam or smoke rising up inside the window. And Wilkins goes, nope, not here, we're doing do it And then he's like walking away and he goes well houses in a home without Wilkins coffee and the house explodes Like yeah, yeah, bro like it. It's like that like there are Definitely various points. Yeah, we're like there's one where he shoots them with a cannon like it is It is you know, it's cartoon violence, obviously. But like, with, speaking, okay, this just maybe to get something.

Was Jim Henson involved with Craig Kaker's? No. I don't believe those are Henson Muppets. Although there's certainly modeled off of Henson's Muppets. Absolutely. I was gonna say, because they do. And just to be clear, Marionettes and puppets are not a combined word to make the word

muppet. Henson, apparently, in some interview admitted that he just made up the word muppets, but the way that these things worked and performed were innovative. It's part of the reason why the term stayed with Henson and Henson's company and things like that, but like realistically, he is very advantageous and innovative for the time. So like local DC TV again in Henson's early years, he had a show called Sam and Fonz, which was like a five-minute interval in between the news in the tonight show for DC area affiliates, right? And with Muppets. He did, he did call them Muppets area affiliates, right? And- With Muppets? He did- he did call them Muppets at the time, right?

And Hermit actually was featured, although like he wasn't Kermit the Frog, but he was Kermit, right? Kinda like Steamboat Willie and- Yeah, I would actually agree with that. Yeah, we're like, you're like, proto- Kermit character, yes. Yeah. But like, so my example is to say that at that point,

anything involving puppetry was like you would see at a children's puppet show. It is a stage where there's a screen, a view window, right? And that's your frame. Hanson just used regular cameras and used the studio or the set that he would make and operated the camera normally. Ah, I see what you're saying now.

Okay, because when you said he like, innovated, I didn't know exactly what you were talking about because you were talking about Mary Nets and stuff. Like you can see sometimes like, you know, the little stick underneath their hand and stuff. like yeah you're right that is that's completely different than like puppetry that you see you don't normally like yeah in a box man yeah I didn't know he was the the first person to do that and another thing I would say is is the way that a lot of these things moved forward

like I watched a clip with Frank Oz on the Roger Moore episode of the Muppet Show And they do like a sit-down segment so they literally like put Frank Oz underneath the floorboard and Have him insert his hand through Piggy and I'm assuming he's like got a stick for the right hand Yeah, and then He's coming through the couch and then Roger more has to come on to set and he performs it right there. Like it, and he would put form monitors down

so people could see what they were doing as they did it. And another thing that really made the Muppets really, really innovative was the fact that like Kermit as a design is near perfect for puppetry because you can change his body language by shifting your forearm and wrist. You can change his facial expressions by changing your finger placement and hands. Yeah. It's very simple, so Soto movements could change so much

and that gives you dramatic or comedic effect instantly. Yeah. Like his body too. It works well with like walking in things like that. Yeah. But the initial design is just like a felt coat, a ping pong ball. Mm-hmm. You know what I'm like, it is very basic. A two. Simple. So back to 1973. Ha-ha-ha. By this point, Henson had found himself in the largest amount of success

he ever had been. Now, granted, Henson was driving a Rolls Royce to his graduation from the University of Maryland. But Sam and friends as an open to the tonight show and a five-minute spot on television and commercials work his biggest notes at that time, although very much worth the acclaim and notoriety he had. And Sesame Street launched him into a whole new stratosphere because like he split the money evenly for any merchandise that would have came from those

characters and like he also had like gained all the notoriety and success from that television show, but as far as Henson's endeavors outside of that, which would continue on, the problem became every single thing that he was pursuant of would be dismissed. Everybody already had a certain level of puppets or for kids. When realistically, Henson was doing a lot more adult things, not adult in like a graphic sense, but as a, you know, comprehension level for an audience, right? Yeah, like the Muppets, I guess they are a little more mature, I would say. Children's programming and family programming are exactly distinct for that reason. You need bright flashy colors and images to hold kids.

You need all of it to keep the adults watching with them at not like helicoptering, right? Sure. So in 1973, Hanson had a Broadway production that had kind of folded up and wasn't going to happen. It was proposed. It was never picked up.

From there, Hanson wanted to do holiday specials, which he had done some of, and would continue to do throughout the stages of the Muppet Show's planning and pre-production, but like, if you could get that weekly TV show, if you could get salmon friends, but better. You know what I mean? Like that was something he was striving for and aiming for. By this point, he's shopping it with Frank Oz and another member of the Muppet's company. And every single place they go, it doesn't take right. Nobody wants anything to do with that. Puppetries for kids, etc, etc. Until they meet with a young executive, a ABC at the time, named Michael Eisner. Okay. Do you know who Michael Eisner will end up being? Hmm. He sounds familiar.

CEO of Disney. Oh, wow, okay. Yeah. So at the time though, he's just a young exuberant executive at ABC. Eisner clears them for a pilot. Thus we get in 1974 and Valentine's Day, the Muppets Valentine Show.

I want to list off some of the key features of this and tell me how much of it you feel keeps with the Muppets Show as you should know it, right? So, this is a show, granted, just a 30-minute special or whatever, but a show about a showwriter trying to develop a script for his show. Number one, okay. You have a majority Muppet cast with Mia Farrow as the celebrity guest star featured performer, okay. All of which are mainstays of the Muppet formula, even later on when they had other like adjacent things to Muppets show? Like Muppets tonight, the Muppets, again on ABC like 2010s and stuff like that.

Like they all kept within that format of a show within a show Muppet cast celebrity guest star. Like that's kind of like the Sesame Street almost. Yeah, I would say to a certain extent. So okay, so like they had this Valentine's Day show, right? When did they get the actual Muppet Show? And like, what did it, when did this become a thing?

Yeah, so in 74 that airs, and then a year later, they had done another one called a Muppet Show Sex and Violence. Oh, yeah, right, exactly. And the pacing for that second pilot was really, really like, quick cuts and almost too sporadic. But between these two things, you would figure out a formula, and you would really

filled out a cast. Then we roll into the fact that nobody picks up the show. But a guy named Lou Grayd in Britain found it and it been watching Henson's work. And one of the few things that happened in between then was a little show that aired on NBC called Saturday Night Live. That whole first season, Henson's Muppets would be featured in a segment week to week. The first season of Saturday night life? Yes, yes. And the thing is,

is that like it led to a very contemptuous relationship where Jim Ballucci apparently was noted as saying mucking puppets and the head writer said I don't write for felt and because it was Union vs a non-union troop, Jerry Jewel, Henson's like almost always had writer, he couldn't be doing that. It had to be the people at SNL. But Lauren Michaels and Jim Henson had the same agent. While they had a creative appreciation for one another and liked to try to collaborate. It really did not work out that way at all. But Bruce Dean, the agent, met up with Lou Grayd and Lou Grayd was enthusiastic and felt that the Muppet Show could work, gave them like three million dollars to do 24 episodes,

but he wanted them to do it at his L Street Studios in London and thus they did. And like early on, they had the two first pilots within that original season. It's like Juliet prowess in somebody else. And like the notes that they got back and the criticism that they got back about those episodes pilots within that original season. It's like Juliet prowess in somebody else. And like the notes that they got back and the criticism that they got back about those episodes actually were like really harsh. But through those, he really ironed out the formula. People really figured out how to perform their muppets and give them life. And thus, you know, this is 1975, when the second pilot airs,

and at the end of it, you have that fall season lineup where SNL started, by 78, by the late 77, 78, it had already been a climbing success within Great Britain, but in America, it really started to hit. That's like season two and Kermit's featured in the Macy's Day Parade. Eventually it goes on to the point where Stallone's coming off of Rocky and having appearance on the Muppet Show. Before Empire Strikes Back, members of the

cast of Star Wars appear on the Muppet Show and then the film happened. So realistically it is one of those things that just I feel like if you look at that list of people who performed on the Muppet Show you have like just a cavalcade of different notable performers of their time, probably some of the most notable performers of their time. But at the time it was like wow, for real, and like one of the things they had to do to make sure, because they didn't really have the money to pay these guys all that well, was they made them feel comfortable. They really tried to like get them, you know, involved and have a fun time being there. And one of the ways they would do that was they would go,

what do you wanna do? Not here's some stuff that we got you because you can sing really well, sing these songs, although certainly if you're a singer, we would love to hear you sing, but would you like to do some comedy stuff? Would you like to do some of this? And I feel like that is something that,

even if the pay wasn't that good and you were used to all the accoutrement, the fact that someone would come to you if you're a Broadway performer and go like, what did you wanna do, like some slapstick comedy stuff? Yeah. And yeah, that's totally what I'd like to do, yeah. He's like, yeah, it lets you get to know

like the people a little different, you know? It's not like what they're always doing. That's actually pretty cool, yeah. From there, man, I mean, the Muppets obviously is something that That stuck with me and I really enjoyed as a child and even even to this day, man You know watching some of the clips that I was watching during my research. I was like, man, I gotta renew that Disney plus Watch some of that Disney. Yeah, yeah, so

We'll end it with this. So later on, Michael Eisner would kind of wrap back around to his old pal Jim and buy the Muppets from him. Okay. Yeah, that sounds like Disney. So once a television show ran 100 episodes in syndication, which is that is how Lou Grayde went about the Muppet Show. Was he syndicated it? He's syndicated Primetime Television, so stations individually bought the show. Once season four wrapped up or whatever like 1980, they had reached a hundred, which means that it could be syndicated for reruns. And that residual income would always fund Hanson's future projects. And just like Sesame Street.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, man. Like, syndication is like, that's like the gold thing of TV shows, right? Like getting that syndication, yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's one of the things I feel like that streaming does really well too is That's great that you're coming out with another season of whatever or you're gonna start this new show that Netflix will End in one season or whatever, but like

The fact that you have a library just like frog was talking about in our sign fell episode like yeah, you have a library, just like Frog was talking about in our SignFeld episode. Like you have this seven seasons of that show, you know what I mean? Like you have seven seasons of SignFeld on Netflix. While altered carbons, probably a great thing. You kept it for like two, two seasons, three seasons, whatever it is. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. Well, Netflix is notorious for cutting, you know, shows short, but yeah. Right. So why would I be invested? Exactly.

Yeah. But you got that sign felt still, right? You know, that's my point is I feel like even with streaming and how much that's changing television right now, the fact that there's old libraries of stuff that people will continue to rewatch periodically. Yeah. It's probably a big boost for them going forward. Oh, sure. So, so there you go. I mean, Hansen is in my opinion one of the most important figures in modern media and an innovator and

yeah, I'm really excited I got to talk about him. Yeah, I mean, like, so Big Bird, I bet. Like, if he was a real bird, he'd probably be the biggest bird in the world. I'm assuming. Yeah, yep. Yeah, but well, hummingbirds, though, actually, there's a hummingbird that's actually the smallest bird in the world. So, well, let's talk about those a little bit. Okay, yeah. So yeah, hummingbirds, man. There's man. There's like 320 species of these things.

And I know, like, when you think of Hummy Birds, we only have the one in our area, right? In Michigan, there's only the Ruby Throat in Hummy Bird. But there's actually like a ton of them down in South America. And the way that they're specialized is just insane, the way that they fly, the way they feed and how big they are. They're such a unique bird. Just to plug one thing is smarter every day. It's an older video now.

He did a video, a slow mo video of Hummybirds feeding and you can see their tongues come out of their mouth or their beaks. Yeah, yeah, I think I've seen it. Yeah. Same man, they look like, I don't know. Yeah. You know, it's almost like Hummybirds are kind of like the insects of the bird world in a way. Yeah. It almost looks like a perbiscus or whatever you don't. Anyways, the Hummybirds are in the family tracheality and they're usually placed with like the swifts and birds like that, you know, like smaller birds. Swifts we have around and Michigan we have a couple. They're usually like the chimney swifts and the tree swifts, you know, you see them like flying around in rivers and stuff like that. Yeah, but they're sometimes separated in their own order, tricilla for me, but yeah, that's you know, getting into the the biology of it.

The science of it. Exactly, yeah, but they split with the swifts though around like 42 million years ago. And like the most common ancestor of all of the hummingbirds was estimated to live around 22 million years ago in South America. So they're pretty ancient. If you really think about it, it's crazy to think, these are dinosaurs. These hummingbirds are dinosaurs.

These little tiny little thing buzzing around as I said. I didn't want to ask because there really isn't many other birds that I can think of. I don't think there is a bird that I could think of but just In general even that long beak with the tongue working as it does is there anything Obviously like that within a bird kingdom, but like even insects the only thing I could think, there's like a certain bee that does things like that, doesn't there? Yeah, oh yeah, definitely. Like there's tons of insects that are just,

that's what I'm saying, like they're kind of like the insect of the bird world. But I don't, I mean, yes, I guarantee there's other birds that are shaped like that and fill that niche of like the nectar feeding type animal. But yeah, because like a woodpecker has a beak, the way that it does to have that constant drilling, but that is way different.

And it actually picks things out with that beak then, it doesn't use its tongue. Yeah, right. Like actually, birds, their beaks are super specialized. You can actually see evolution of of birds Depending on that and I'll actually get into a couple things about their beaks a little later It's pretty cool. Yeah, but so like they're first named like like you know studied around like in the 18th century by a British guy I named net joggo old and he named it from there like excited names and stuff like that like the

Sun gem and the the towp has and the coquette and fairy and sapphire because like that's really yeah like because if you look at like if you look at Like the family of these birds. They're just so brightly colored and stuff like the one that we I mean even the one that that comes up around ours You know the Ruby Throne and they're like Like, it's a beautiful bird, but like, compared to the ones in South America, it's just like, it's sad to see like, man, just the ear and descents of them. Do we get like the knockoff hummingbird? Not really, it's just that it's green.

Like, it has its corgat, you know, it has its little like bib around its neck, but yeah, I mean, you know, like that's a common thing in a lot of hummingbirds, but it just doesn't have like that snap, you know, as some of the other hummingbirds. It doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. I mean, it's like, you know, like, think of parrots and stuff, you know, they're beautiful birds and stuff like that. Yeah, like, because only like 12 of the 320 species are found in the US and like Canada

So really most of them twerr. Yeah 12 of the 320 Yeah, yeah, but like figured we had more yeah exactly like what like the Ruby Throat it though Like that that's someone that most people know because like it's in most of America Like it goes from Nova Scotia down to like Florida at one of the East Coast You know on the West Coast there's a few other words once. Like the roof is hummingbird. That one actually goes from like south eastern Alaska all the way like to northern California. So like it stays. But it won't go as far east as us, huh? Yeah. Like there's actually a lot of different birds. Like I'm a I used to be a big

birder. I'm not so much anymore, but I still love them, you know, obviously, but yeah, it's not like the birds. Yeah, but like, yeah, like the West Coast versus the East Coast of birds is completely different because it's like the way they migrate, you know, like they're yeah, it's like migratory paths, you know, like they grow up in Mexico or they like hop through the Caribbean. So there's a lot of different species in those two different areas. Yeah. So these hummingbirds, like every species is like pretty small, you know, with some going

to the really extreme, you know, but like the largest one is called the giant hummingbird. You know, I mean, I guess pets. Right. That's not like Western South America. And it's still only like eight inches long though. So like, or 27 meters. Yeah, and it weighs like 0.7 ounces or 20 grams, you know, like so like, it's still tiny.

Yeah, and like that's smaller than most of the sparrows, you know, like the house sparrow or things like that. You know, things that you see, but the smallest species and the smallest of all the birds is the bee hummingbird. And that's in Cuba and also the isle of pines. And that thing's only 2.6 inches or 2.16 inches, sorry. So like, let's 2.8 essentially or 5.5 centimeters, right? And half of that is this bill and tail.

So like it's not, yeah, it's not even the bird. Yeah, like in a waist two grams. Like it's just like, it's just tiny, tiny little things. Yeah, it's the smallest of the birds, but like, like I said, but it's also like pretty much like pygmy shrews, those two are like the smallest of all warm blooded vertebrates. So like a, all like, yeah, vertebrates, which is a moff, like, yeah, of vertebrates,

which is a huge room. Yeah, anything with the sponge? Yeah, and there's actually a moth that looks like a hummingbird. It's kind of funny because like, What? Yeah, I don't know like the exact dimensions, but I wonder if that moth is bigger

than the B hummingbird. Yeah, I should have looked that up. Yeah, but you can see it. You can see it and where we live. It looks like a hummingbird Yeah, I should look that up. Yeah, yeah, but you can see it you can see it and where we live You know it looks like a hummingbird, but it's it's actually a mouth. Yeah The wings the wings of the body and everything I'm humming birds like built are as built So a lot of them to be like extremely agile and like they can hover Yeah, aerodynamics. Yeah, like they could hover and move back forward up and down You know like they're like you know like they move like the Queen on a chessboard. They can go any directions

Right and Well, and I think that's another thing that lends to the insect comparison is that like what bird do you really see Stay in place and go backwards ever exactly like there is no other bird I don't think that does that flies like a hummingbird. The way they have to fly, I remember in college taking an orthology like they they talked about like the curvature of the wings and everything and you can like you can tell how a bird flies just depending on like the shape of their wings and the shape of the hummingbirds, it's more of a half moon shape, or half circle.

And because of that, and the way it is attached to their shoulders, it allows them to flap their wings different from most bird or any other bird. And because of that, they can hover. There is birds that hover. A lot of birds are preyed stuff You'll see hovering like on the sides of the road You know trying to but usually what they're doing is using the wind to do that, you know and like like but homie birds can like literally like just

Move like I said move it every which way right the wing beats extremely fast, too You know, it's up to like 80 times a second. And we're like, some of the bigger ones though, are as low as 10 times a second. But still, that's a safety fast. But it is slower than similar size birds. The Ruby Throat of those, 70 beasts per second. So that's one of the faster ones, right? So they also have the highest mass-specific metabolic rate

of any warm blood of the animal. So that means that like they have to constantly be eating to like maintain their metabolism. Like it's either like eat eat eat eat eat or at or like going to what is called a torpor which is like a short-term hibernation essentially. Like they like they land and like going to like a deep sleep. And that usually happens like at night or when food is scarce. So like that's why it's super important to keep your, your hummingbird feeders full because like they need that food constantly.

It's like, but when they're in Torpor, like they're metabolic rate can sort of like one-fifteenth of its normal rate. Like it's like they're essentially like go, yeah, they're like shutting down their bodies. It's pretty cool to kind of get into like what, you know, like I was saying earlier, like the looks of them and stuff.

Like there's different sexual gyomorphism and hummingbirds is pretty extreme. That's like the difference between the looks of the male and the female of the species. Like males are often have like crazy colors, you know, like big feathers sticking out of their head or their tail or, you know, like, yeah, they're often, they're often iridescent, especially at the Gorgat, like I was talking earlier, they're a little bib, you know, it's often like iridescent. And birds often, they see in a different like wavelengths than we do.

So like sometimes that actually is like, you know, can like be brighter and stuff, you know, to them than it is to us. Okay, right, right. So like yeah, like some of them like, you know, long like flag like tail feathers or like wiery ones, you know, or what they're called spatulite, which are like kind of like a spatula round and a broad round of the ones. Or like the, like, puffy tuffs of feathers,

other, other legs. Like I've seen a couple that have like these really red feathers on their legs and like, I don't know where else is red, except for that, I have like red pants essentially. Right. So like, is there a benefit to them having things like that? Or just plumage? It's mostly for mating. It seems like, you know, it's just like to show off like for mating, you know, what's up, girl? Check out these red pants. Yeah, it's like,

yeah. Well, like, you know, like, but they're okay, speaking of benefits, like, you know, like the way they look and stuff, the bill, right? The beak that is like the with especially with hummingbirds. It's super adapted to like specific flowers a lot of the times, right? Oftentimes they're just a straight like long narrow beak, you know, so that they can get in and get the nectar out of out of flowers But sometimes they can be like extremely curved like with the white tip sickle bill, right? This thing's like almost has like a half circle beak. It looks like, you know, it's like almost pointing straight downward, it feels like it's straight ahead at you. It's so it can get into this specific flower and like get the nectar out of it, you know,

it can like reach in and scoop it around and and suck out the nectar with its like curved beak. It's pretty crazy. It's cool. What look I'm a video of it if you can. But most of the time, like I said, it's like mostly straight, but there is some that are upturned like the awe bill or the apple set bill, hummingbirds, but and like the sickle build, there's more different sickle build hummingbirds that it's usually pointing downwards. Most species, they don't usually form pair bonds, which is kind of unusual in bird species. Like a lot of bird species usually bond, or at least for like a year,

or for life a lot of times. And like with these birds, the males actually like claim territory. And because of that, you'll see them like often times like fighting other hummingbirds, or even other birds, you know, like bigger birds. I'm like, yeah, even humans too. Like I guess there's like, people like people

who have better attacks by hummingbirds. I've never heard that before. But like, I mean, I'm sure you've seen, it's just that you know, you live out of the country. I'm sure you've seen specifically red wing blackbirds attacking like crows and yeah, things like that. Yeah, and that's pretty much what the hummingbirds are doing too.

You know, they're attacking like a bigger bird like saying get out of my territory. And like, I don't know if it's just like testosterone, but like that's just what they do. It's pretty funny because they go away. You know, that's crazy. The crazy thing is they go away. We got no red pants on around here. You need to get out. Well, I mean, it's pretty crazy. So, like, most of them, like, they don't really tweet that much.

I can't really hear them, like, singing, you know, you know, you know, you know, you don't often hear about like, oh, you hear that hummingbird singing in the morning. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Like, they're mostly like, you have like, twittering or like squeaky or scratchy songs, you know, but like what you often hear is their wings, which is the, you know, the humming of the hummingbird. Yeah. And that's because like I was mentioned earlier,

the U-shaped flight pattern, like, you know, like are the wings and the way that they, they've got flat-throwed wings creates that. Does that like bring it because it can have that like crescent moon kind of angled? Is that like sweep in air around to underneath them and help like Yeah. So if I, if I recall correctly, like they kind of, if you think of it, like, I don't know, whatever, like a flat, you know, holding your hands out, right? If you point your palms down to the ground, they would push down like that, right?

And then they would turn their palms like facing away from you, you know, outward in front. And then lift their ribings and then, you know, do that. And from doing that, like, they're able to hover because they're just, they're pushing down and like the aerodynamics of that, they're cutting through the air going back up. So they're not forcing any air to make them fall. Yeah, like it's, again, watch that smarter everyday video because it does show that too.

And it's so cool. And they're nests I really cool too. Like, it's usually like this tiny little cup, you know, made out of like plant fibers or spider webs or even like, likeins and moss. And it's usually attached like a branch or twig. Like, you know, or a leaf, you know, these things are so small. Like, like, imagine how small of a egg hummingbird is true right? They usually one or, I mean sorry,

they usually only lay two eggs rarely one, but like almost never more than two. Obviously it's the smallest of any egg from the birds, but it's actually 10% of the female's body weight, which is pretty big, you know. Oh my God, yeah. They're only made for like 15 to 20 days and then like they check, it's crazy.

Yeah, because they're born blind, right? They're born like blind and like featherless and they're fed by their parents for three weeks, right? And then after that, like, you know, that's when they're finally able to actually get up and start moving around and stuff. And egg laying actually is typically correlated with food supply. So like they'll like cut out egg laying if there's not enough food and stuff again because they're torpor and so they got to be eating all the time

Right. Yeah, but there's one last piece. She's I want to talk about and I don't know if it's exactly a hummingbird Yeah, but it was this beautiful bird we saw an a hummingbird you know documentary and it's called the resplendent quetzal and this thing like it has like this iridescent green and like it's it It's just probably one of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen and it doesn't really look exactly like a hummingbird But it's small like one, right, but and it is in the same. I've tried to look it up But I can't really exactly see it's in the same family as the homie bird So like I'm calling it a hummingbird, right?

Yes, but like it has like these sharp like black wing tips, you know, and the weird thing about it though Is that it is these these avocados like these wild avocados and it like regurgitates these giant seeds? It's just crazy. Yeah, watch the video, but I'm like, wow, you know, it eats this fruit that's not much bigger than the seed, and it just spits up and this giant seed afterwards. I as part of the thought of what I'm doing.

No, I'm looking at it right now. I was gonna say before you brought it up that like, I've noticed how much I Google exactly what you're talking about when you talk about these animals I'm like what what let me look at this thing and then like I do and I'm always just like God it doesn't know justice but it if you have a chance to check these things out definitely do I'm looking at this one picture right here and like it has this crazy draping tail to it too which makes it super cool.

Yeah, I'm digging this thing. I just love that comment. Is it? That like blue green eardesset man, that's my favorite. So in some correlation with some of our previous releases I have to ask hummingbirds probably not overall being there's like 320 species or something like that right. But what are we looking at as far as endangerment? Actually, like, unfortunately, like, a lot of them are endangered.

Like, yeah. That's okay. Like, most, or, no, I don't want to say most of them, but like, the Ruby Thorey that I don't think is endangered, like, I think it's pretty safe, but a lot of, especially in South America, there's, yeah, the Amazon, like Frog was talking, you know, that's the biggest thing. Like we need to be able to preserve that. And like hopefully through, like we're more aware.

Now I feel like as a, as a whole in the world. And I feel, I mean, it is still happening, but I think we're, we're on the right path, yeah. Right, yeah, yeah. Definitely. It's good to know. And I want to add that, you know, a positive thing. So, yeah, with that, you want to leave us out, Kyle.

And with that, everyone, we would love to thank you for joining us here at the Brain Soda Podcast. Find us on Facebook, TikTok, Patreon will be updated very, very soon, and you can get early access to these episodes there. And for now, we'll see you again soon. See ya. Blamati, blan. Watch more Muppet Show.

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