Stuff You Should Know - Selects: Hummingbirds: Ornery Helicopters of the Animal Kingdom

Episode Date: August 24, 2024

If you didn’t already know how amazing hummingbirds are, prepare to learn. Not only do they count among their numbers the smallest bird species, they are also lightning fast and have the endurance of a marathoner and a telethoner put together. Get up to speed on these wonderful creatures in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The summer of sports is on and I'm feeling the competitive spirit. Luckily, I have Monopoly Go. Over 150 million have downloaded it to play with other tycoons to expand their empire and their riches. And my favorite part is playing with my friends. It's such a rush to win special rewards with a buddy and a partner event. Or I can go after their fortunes to be a top tycoon. I can smash their landmarks, pull bank heists, or charge them rent like in classic Monopoly. So make your move and download Monopoly Go, now free on the App Store and Google Play. For so many people living with an autoimmune condition like myasthenia gravis or chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, the emotional toll can be as real as the physical

symptoms. That's why, in an all-new season of Untold Stories, Life with a Severe Auto-Immune Condition from Ruby Studio and Argenics, host Martin Hackett gets to the heart of the emotional journey for individuals living with these conditions. To find community and inspiration on your journey, listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey buddies, it's me Josh, and for this week's Select I've chosen our May 2020 episode on hummingbirds, one of the best animals of all time for my money.

They're cute, there's a bunch of amazing facts about them, and they're ornery little cusses too, which makes them great. Enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Jerry's flitting around here, here there, darting to and fro like a little ruby-throated Honduran emerald. And this is stuff you should know.

I saw Jerry. I know, I heard Jerry. I saw her with my own two eyes. How's she doing? Is her hair just completely white now? Well, I mean, we were 15 feet away from each other, so I couldn't tell. What, did you try squinting?

I did, and I shaved, so she didn't even recognize me. I know, I saw that picture, man, you look great. Yeah, thanks. So nice, it's just luxurious. Well, the beard's coming back. Already, huh? From the second I shaved it, technically it started coming back.

That is true. Are you one of those people who say like, yeah, from the moment we're born, we start dying? No, God, I hate those people. I know. They're the pits. No, hungering back out, it was just a little change of pace. That's good.

Must have felt really weird. It does still feel pretty weird at times. Well, that's good. Well, you'll get used to it. Four days later, yeah. Yeah. So, Chuck, I want to talk about something else that's weird besides the feeling of having just shaved off a beard after 15 million years. Which by the way, if you want to see that picture, you can go to the Movie Crush page

on Facebook and see that. Absolutely. And now continue. The weird thing I want to talk about today, Chuck, are hummingbirds. They're great. Hummingbirds, yes. So they are weird, but they're weird

in all of the most delightful ways. I love hummingbirds, love them. And I love them even more now that I know more about them. Yeah, good eating. Yeah. And I love them even more now that I know more about them. Yeah, good eating. Yep. You just grab them out of the air, snap the wings off, and pop them. Like you think a quail doesn't produce much meat. Hummingbird.

Got to have like 40 of those for dinner. At least. That might just be an appetizer. Good luck catching them though, right? They are hard to catch, but I have a story. There was a hummingbird once that got into my house and it was freaking out. It was basically just smacking its head against the ceiling. I know, it was very sad.

So I got a chair and I just held my hand up just right by it and it stopped freaking out and perched on my hand. I had a hummingbird perched motionlessly on my hand, and it stayed there long enough for me to stick my hand out the window, and it flew off. Isn't that neat? How many years ago was this? That was a while back.

I mean, no. Were you a child? No, no, no. I was a man. Okay. I must've smelled great too, because the hummingbird chose to trust me. But I thought that was just one of the coolest things ever. That's pretty amazing.

A guy in our neighborhood yesterday got attacked by an owl. So that's on the other end of the bird-human interaction spectrum. Yeah. An owl or the Jersey Devil? Apparently it's not uncommon. To get attacked by an owl? Yeah, I mean we've got a big one that makes an almost every evening fly over our backyard to the big forest behind our yard from across the street and we love this thing. But I didn't know that they attacked people like this, but it happens.

Is your neighbor a talking rabbit? I don't have a neighbor to where it goes. It's an empty house, so maybe that's why they like it. So, no, who was attacked though? Your neighbor who was attacked. Oh, not a neighbor, but just I saw it on the neighborhood Facebook page. Some guy was attacked like the owl came down and taloned his head. That's crazy, dude. I'll bet that killed.

I wonder if the guy was like, oh, look at him. Because owls are huge. I wonder if he's like, man, look at that thing. Hey, he's coming at me. And then all of a sudden you've got talons in your skull. Oh my god. All right. Stop diverting attention from hummingbirds.

Yeah. So hummingbirds, they are with the family. I had it earlier, and it's really not hard. Trocalidae. Trocadilly. Trocalidae. Trocalidae. And they are related to the swifts. And you know hummingbirds.

These are the little bitty fellas. They weigh between 2 and 20 grams. They have those long, pointy noses that they love to stick in flowers. And they have these wings that, and boy, when we get into the fascinating facts about the hummingbird and those little wings, it gets pretty amazing. But one of the things I'm going to go ahead and spoil from later in this stuff you put together was that what's so remarkable about hummingbirds and how they fly is that they, you know, usually when you see a bird

fly, they flap down and that provides their lift. A hummingbird's like, no way buddy, you got to get that thing working in both directions. Double your pleasure. Up and down. That is how a hummingbird is able to hover and go in reverse and do all those crazy things is because it's not just flapping, it's flipping and flapping. Yeah, they're the only vertebrate animal that can hover like a helicopter. It's like the Blue Thunder of birds. Wasn't that a Roy Scheider movie?

Yeah, that was a good one. I think I wasn't allowed to watch that because there's some sexy stuff in there. There is. Yeah, the Blue Thunder peeks in some windows, if you know what I mean. Yeah, and it came out at a time when I would watch movies with my mom and she was like, you need to leave the room. Yeah, I don't think I was allowed to watch it at first either, but I think I might have snuck it.

Oh, I see what you mean. So one of the things that makes hummingbirds so well known, aside from their incredible agility and being the only vertebrate that can hover in midair, is just the look of them. Because if you've ever looked at a hummingbird from afar, you're like, oh, that thing's okay. It's just a kind of a normal looking bird. And then it just moves and catches the sunlight just right. And all of a sudden,

this splash of metallic jewel-like color just crosses its throat and chest, and you say, the hummingbird is truly great. Yeah, it's amazing. It's sort of like the butterfly wings in that if you catch it at the right angle, you get that metallic sort of shiny color and it's sort of for the same reason, those gorgets, which is that reflective stuff on the upper chest of the hummingbird and like the throat area. It's not actual pigment. It is the structure, the physical structure of those feathers, these little air bubbles inside there that reflect that light.

Right, yeah. And I'm pretty sure, I mean, we did an episode on butterfly wings. Yeah, iridescence. Yeah. And I'm pretty sure it is the exact same thing in butterfly wings as in that gorget, that clutch of feathers in the hummingbird. Pretty cool. Yeah, so it not only reflects it,

but also like bulks it up too. Pretty neat stuff. So, man, sorry. I guess I'm kind of phlegmy today. I don't know why, but my apologies for being phlegmy. That's all right. So, one thing I didn't realize about hummingbirds is there's 338 species that we know of.

And all of them are found in the Americas. Did you know that? I don't think I did. But they're found like all throughout the Americas from Chile, all the way up to Southern Alaska and Canada. They've got a pretty wide range. But the thing is, the things are so small, so tiny, and so unable to maintain a decent body temperature,

that they basically follow the summer when they migrate. Yeah, and they all diverged from a single common ancestor about 22 million years ago. And kind of the cool thing is that they keep changing and their rate of speciation is really pretty incredible. It's supposedly going to outpace their rate of extinction and we're going to see, well, we won't see it. Because we'll be dead in the next 40 years. But human beings, if we're still around that is, are going to see the number of species of hummingbird double to what we have today, but it's going to be a few million years.

So don't expect that anytime soon. Yeah, but it is pretty cool just to think that, you know, they're still in the midst of their evolutionary history and like right in the middle of it, you know? Yeah, totally. I like that about them. So, you know, being that multivaried species all the way from Patagonia up to Alaska, they have learned to adapt to a bunch of different niches and habitats, right? So you can find hummingbird species in like sub sea level deserts.

You can find them up in the Andes. There's actually a lot of different species that live in the Andes Mountains. You can find the bulk of them in tropical forests around the tropics of the New World. And they've adapted like really well to their different environments. Some migrate, some don't. But all of them are very tiny. Yeah, they're cute little things. If you look up a picture of the bee hummingbird,

just prepare for one of the cutest little, I mean it looks like, it looks fake. Yeah, it does. You know, it doesn't look like a bird could actually be that small without becoming an insect. Right, it's going to just collapse into insect form at any moment. But look it up online, the little bee hummingbird from Cuba weighs about 1.95 grams. We don't get those here in Georgia, the only kind. And I think, how many species are there in the United States, about 17 or 18? Yeah, that's what I saw.

But only that ruby-throated is the one that we're going to get here on the East Coast. Yeah, and just to go, like, to double that up, man, 1.95 grams, somebody did the math and you could mail 14 of those things with one postage stamp in the United States. Just smash them down flat. There's not, yeah, right? There's not a single species of hummingbird that breaks an ounce in weight, which is to say that the largest hummingbird species

there is, the giant hummingbird, which is kind of a contradiction in terms, it's still smaller than an Atlantic canary. Wow. The giant hummingbird is still canary-sized. So, this is a very tiny group of birds. Well, and this is the stat that gets me, and this is the one I texted Emily, because we love our hummingbirds like all normal humans. Sure.

The eggs of the ruby-throated hummingbird that we have here in Georgia are the size of a pea. Can you believe that? Did you look up their nests, pictures of their nests? Oh yeah. They're gorgeous. It looks like something you'd buy on Etsy. They look kind of like made of felt because hummingbirds use spider silk.

They take old spider webs and use them as thread to weave their nests, along with plant fibers and leaves and twigs, to give it kind of this spongy, velvety, super-cush feel for their little babies. Velvety mouth feel. Exactly. So we're going to talk a lot about the hummingbird flying because it's pretty remarkable. It's one of the most remarkable things in nature.

I think it's right up there with the chromatophores of the octopus. I was about to spoil our live show, but maybe I should. Are we ever going to be on stage again? I don't know, but let's just hold on to it just in case. We're going to keep that in our back pocket. But the wings, the wing muscles of a hummingbird account to about 25 to 30% of its total body weight. So this thing is all, like it never has legs day at the gym. It's always doing upper body.

And the legs are tiny and weak and they really don't walk. I mean, they can perch. But if you see a hummingbird, they're gonna be moving. If you notice, you never see a hummingbird just kind of strolling around on your deck or something. Yeah, they kind of have legs similar to David Cross's character in that Titanic sketch from Mr. Show.

Yeah. Do you remember? I do. in that Titanic sketch from Mr. Show. Do you remember? I do. So he's kind of Hummingbird-like in that respect. But yeah, if your legs are that weak and your wings are that strong, you're going to spend most of your time in midair. And they basically do, although they nest on branches, they sleep on branches, they do perch, they mate on branches as we'll see.

They perch on your finger apparently. Palm of your hand. Oh, was palm of your hand? It was the palm of my hand, yeah. I gave it plenty of space. Okay, I gotcha. And then they also sometimes will sleep upside down, just kind of dangling from a twig or something with their spindly little legs, like a bat. Oh, wow. Yeah.

So just some amazing stats about their ability to fly. Like we said, they're the only vertebrate that can hover in place. They can also fly upside down, backward. They're real showoffs. They really are big time showoffs. They can get up to speeds of more than 45 miles per hour. God knows how many kilometers per hour that is.

That's a lot. On some of their dives. But even like an average speed for them of just flying around, you know, where they're not just, you know, going from flower to flower, but they're like, say, traveling from place to place, is, you know, 30 plus miles an hour.

That's pretty impressive. No, it's super impressive. And if you think, man, A, how fast are those little wings going, and B, what is their little cardiovascular system doing? It's doing exactly what you think it is. Their heart beats about 225 times per minute when it's hanging out and doing nothing. About 1200 times a minute when it's hanging out and doing nothing. About 1200 times a minute when it's flying and those wings range from 70 up and down

strokes per second or I wonder if that counts as one or two. I was wondering that myself and I'm not sure that that is answered. At the very least we're not going to answer it because we don't have that answer. Well how about it doesn't matter because either way it's a ton. It's 70 times per second when they're just flying normally around to get some good sweet stuff. But that courtship dive, which we're going to talk about a little later that you mentioned, about 200 times per second those wings are flapping. Yeah, and actually now that you say it, if they're kind of doubling up what a flap is,

then maybe hummingbirds aren't so impressive after all. Lazies. So Chuck, when you're flapping your wings a hundred or 200 times per second, depending on whether you're counting the upbeats and the downbeats as a single flap or not, you need like a lot of energy to do that. And as a result, the hummingbird typically eats about two to three times its own weight

in food every day. Yeah. Like if that was a human, you would, let me see here. It's the equivalent of about 285 pounds of hamburger. Is that and 370 pounds of potatoes? No, I think each of these. Okay, so take your pick. If you want to eat just hamburger, it would be 285 pounds a day. That's a whole cow. That's a, yeah, I think a little bit, I think cows weigh more than that, but.

Right. Well, but as far as usable beef, I think a little bit, I think cows weigh more than that, but. Right. Well, but as far as usable beef, I don't know. There you go. What else? I'm sorry for any vegetarians out there by me saying usable beef. That's a band name. Just made you retch in your mouth. Maybe it's an album name now that I think about it.

Usable beef? Mm-hmm. By the band what? Jungle X-Ray. So, yeah, they eat a lot because they need to. It's like Fourth of July for them every day. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Two to three times their own weight in food. Yeah, and this is, we're talking about just on normal days.

Can we talk a little bit about the migration and their need to beef up then? I think we should. So they migrate like we talked about. They're not exactly sure what triggers that. They think maybe they see the change in daylight like some other animals and birds do. Or maybe just the fact that flowers, you know, what the flowers are doing. But I think that that's the one, that's the big one because they can't go for more than a few hours without food. So they need to go where the plants are flowering.

Right. And I think they just kind of follow that. And I guess they're always connected to that, those subtle changes in the flowering. Exactly. So during this migration, their heart beats about 1,260 times a minute. And they have to gain, because they're trekking, I mean, sometimes they're flying over the Gulf of Mexico in one shot over the course of a few days.

So they need to bulk up big time. They gain about 25 to 40% of their body weight before they start this migration. And if we're going to do the human equivalent again for this, if you were a person that weighed 170 pounds, that means you'd have to gain up to about 255 in a few weeks time. It's like Christian Bale-esque. I know, in just a few weeks, man. That's crazy. So one of the things that's so impressive about the hummingbird is just how far it can fly in a day, especially for how small it is.

is just how far it can fly in a day, especially for how small it is, you know? They average something like 23 miles a day when they're migrating. But the ruby-throated hummingbird, the one that, it's the only one that you'll find east of the Mississippi. So if you see a hummingbird in your east of the Mississippi,

you can be like an ornithologist for once in your life and be like, that's a ruby-throated hummingbird. They actually can travel for extraordinarily long stretches and they do because their wintering grounds are in the Yucatan, but they hang out in Florida during the other part of the year, I guess during the summer. And so they travel over the Gulf of Mexico, they think,

and when they do that, they do it in like a straight 500 mile stretch within 18 to 22 hours without stopping. That's incredibly impressive. It really is, but then there was a study in 2016 that found they could go even further, right? Yeah, they said, you know, physiologically, in theory, they could fly close to 1,400 miles without stopping if they needed to. That's crazy.

That'd be like flying from Atlanta to Albuquerque. That's nuts. If you want a reference, that means nothing to nobody. So if you're wondering when they rest, when they finally get down to that sweet soil in Mexico, they can enter torpor, which we've talked about before, it is sort of hibernation light, really deep sleep-like state, their metabolic functions are really slowed, I think they can drop their body temperature by 30 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, they lower that heart rate from about 1200 beats per minute

to as few as 50. And they do this after they migrate, but they can do this any time they need to, and they do. Yeah, they do. And also I think it depends on where they live because hummingbirds, like I said, a lot of them live in the Andes, like high up on the mountainside. And even in the summer it can get kind of cool there. So when the temperature cools enough that it makes no sense for them to keep up their metabolic rate to try to meet their 105 degree Fahrenheit body temperature, they'll enter torpor and that's just what they do for sleep. And one of the other things that I want to point out about them living in the

Andes, Chuck, this is all really just a segue for this amazing fact. They live in the Andes despite the fact, and there are some species that are native to the Andes, not just migrating through that's where they live is the Andes, despite the fact that they have these high metabolic rates and they need more oxygen, well, there's just inherently less oxygen in the air up in the mountains. And it's harder to hover because the air is thinner, and yet they are so successful there in the Andes that up above a certain line, there's no insects.

And so it's up to the hummingbirds exclusively to pollinate all the flowering plants up there. Yeah, I mean, I think that's probably why. Like they have the market cornered up there. Sure. So they're like, all right, well, Let's adapt so we can kind of own this area And not only that I don't think we mentioned that sometimes if you're a small enough hummingbird And there's a big enough insect the insect is

Can can win that battle in hummingbird world the insect eat you? All right Branson misery All right, Branson misery. Let's take a break. Okay. I figured that was going to trigger a break. All right. We'll come back right now to talk more about hummingbirds. The summer of sports is on and I'm feeling the competitive spirit. Luckily, I have Monopoly Go.

Over 150 million have downloaded it to play with other tycoons to expand their empire and their riches. And my favorite part is playing with my friends. It's such a rush to win special rewards with a buddy and a partner event. Or I can go after their fortunes to be a top tycoon. I can smash their landmarks, pull bank heists, or charge them rent like in Classic Monopoly. So make your move and download Monopoly Go, now free on the App Store and Google Play. For so many people living with an autoimmune condition, the emotional toll is as real as

the physical symptoms. Starting this May, join host, Martine Hackettett for season three of Untold Stories, Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, a Ruby Studio production, and partnership with Arginics. From myasthenia gravis, or MG, to chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, also known as CIDP, Untold Stories highlights the realities of navigating life with these conditions, from challenges to triumphs. In this season, Martina and her guests discuss the range of emotions that accompany each stage of the journey.

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for culture into business. Whether you're just getting started or an established business owner, Butternomics will give you what you need to take your game to the next level. This is Butternomics. Listen to Butternomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, Chuck, so we're talking more about hummingbirds. One of the things that I really feel like we just need to underscore here is that they are metabolic wonders.

They live on this edge of survival where they will die if they go a few hours without food. Like do you know how many days you, a human being, can go without food before you die as long as you have water and maybe access to a couple vitamins or whatever? I think we did a podcast on that at some point. I'm pretty sure we did. Yeah, Angus Barber or Barbier, I can't remember.

They die within hours, so they constantly have to search for food sources. Yeah, that's why you see them flitting about constantly. They're always looking for food. But it's also one of the reasons why they're known as potentially the most unsociable and most territorial bird in existence. Yeah, they don't like hanging out with each other. There are some exceptions that we're going to talk about. But they generally don't like hanging out together.

They don't like hanging out with other birds. At the end of the day when everyone's just sing-songing by the shoreline, hummingbirds are like, no, screw you guys, I got to eat. And not only do I have to eat, I got to make little hummingbird pee eggs. And we talked about this courtship dive, we kind of teased it out. This is pretty incredible. And this is, you know, a lot of times in mating rituals, you'll see the males doing these kind of big fancy shows to try. Do card tricks.

Yeah, trying, dogs playing poker, that was all about. That's right. The photographer was a female dog. Do card tricks. Yeah, try and. Dogs playing poker, that was all about. That's right. Photographer was a female dog. That's right. And so you'll, or I guess it wasn't a photograph, was it? It was probably a painting. Now that I think about it.

In stuff you should know world, it was a photograph. But it was a tin type, so it was very old. That's right. So it was funny. I was telling my daughter today about my bed. She always loves hearing stories about me and my brother as a kid. And I was telling her about my teenage bedroom and I was like, I'll show you a picture one day, I've got pictures.

And she said, you had a phone when you were little? And I was like, oh boy, that's what it's like these days. And I had to explain that, you know, this phone, camera in a phone is kind of a new thing. Like, they used to be two different pieces of equipment. Yes, they were two very bulky different pieces of equipment. And a phone used to be attached to your wall in your kitchen. Oh, yeah, that's true. But if you were, you know, super wealthy, you have one of those really, really long cords. I knew you were going to say that because that's exactly the deal.

Yeah. So, the courtship dive is when the male is trying to attract the female for a little lovin', that will fly up in the air really high, about 50 or 60 feet, and then dive bomb toward the female as fast as it can go. And they are flying the whole way. They're not just, they don't tuck the wing back wing back and the wings back like you're parachuting or something No, like they're flying as fast as they can Mm-hmm right at this lady's face and within inches of her head

Going full tilt. They just pull up real quick and They they hit her in the arm twice and say two for flinching Hey, they put on the brakes and she flies right by. But that's what they do. It's crazy. They fly right at their face and then stop. If the female gets a little turned on, she might flit about in the air with them. And then that's where people might think, oh, look at those two hummingbirds are up in the air having sex. Not true. No. And maybe your mom would tell you that you need to leave the room because hummingbirds

are doing it midair. But that's not what they're doing. They actually copulate, perched on a branch. Okay. How do they do that? The female lands on the branch. Sometimes, like you said, she'll join him in the air. Other times she'll just be like, come on down here.

You win. Let's go. And the male mounts her from behind on the branch. And just like with everything else, the hummingbirds are super quick at sex too. Apparently it takes about four seconds and then that's it. Like wham-bam, thank you ma'am. Yep. And the male flies away. He doesn't hang around and see if it took. He goes on to have sex with another female. And the lady goes like, what is this, a fern bar?

Who are you, Jack Tripper? And so she goes off and builds a nest and does all the parenting. Like, you know, they don't mate for life, they don't even stick around after they mate at all. It's just they're in, they're out, they're gone. And I mean, you might think, well, that's a pretty big bummer. Poor, poor female. Poor ladies. Yeah, poor lady hummingbirds.

That's exactly how they want it, because like we said, as the species is known as, or all of the species, the hummingbird is known as the most territorial bird. So it seems at least as far as natural selection is concerned, females prefer this arrangement, no pair imprinting or mating pair imprinting to where they just do all the work themselves,

because that means that they can also have their own access to their food source, to where no matter what the male hummingbird is going to bring to the table and say child-breeding or whatever, it's not worth the food that this female would have to share. And that's where their territoriality comes from. Because remember, hummingbirds live on this edge of survival, where if they go for hours without food, they will die. So they're really, really protective of their food source, to the point where a female hummingbird would preferably

raise Young on her own than share her food source with the male. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of cool actually. I get the picture that the female hummingbird is like, I need you for one thing. It takes four seconds and believe me, if I could go to a sperm bank, I would prefer that, honestly. I thought you were going to say believe me, you're going to have the time of your life. But those four seconds will be a wild ride, my friend. That's right. Come meet me on the sprangy over here, baby. It's going to be a stone gas, honey.

Hey, babe, come here. So those gorgets that we were talking about, those really colorful, iridescent, sort of fluffy chest and neck feathers of the male. Like with many animals, the more brightly colored and showy that is, the more the female might be attracted because that might indicate that male bird's fitness because, you know, you got to, it takes a lot of work to keep that hairstyle up. So he must be pretty strong and have, you know, pretty good at organizing his day-to-day list to do. Effectively the exact same signals that Joe Dirt put out with his hair.

You know, he was obviously very genetically fit and ready to go. I never saw that. You should. It's definitely, it's got a lot of heart. I think I say that every time you say you never saw it. But it's worth checking out for sure. It's one of those ones, you know, some don't age very well. I think it came poorly aged right out of the production facility. But that's one of the great beauties of it.

It's definitely worth seeing, Chuck. Well, speaking of aged right out of the shoot, that's kind of the deal with hummingbird babies, too. The mom doesn't, there's not a lot of teaching and like, here, let me show you the ropes. It's kind of like, all right, this is the world. You've been hatched from your little pea-sized egg. Now, go out there and be a hummingbird. Learn it all on your own, kiddo. But what's amazing, though, is that they do learn this on their own. They have astounding memories to the point where

when they migrate, people who put out feeders, which we'll talk about in a little bit, for hummingbirds note that the same ones, or what they believe is the same one, comes back year after year. And what's even more astounding, frequently on the same day of the year, the same date, the same hummingbird will come back year after year on his or her migration, right?

And they just understand this, they notice, and part of it, yes, is following flowers and the blooming patterns of flowers, but they also think they might have some sort of magnetic compass built in that possibly part of their pineal gland, which is light sensitive, manages to use the sun as a compass. And that they have astounding memories somehow, some way, because apparently their brain is about the size of a grain of rice in most cases. Yeah, and the other thing they'll do too is if they have, speaking of coming back to the buffet, if they have a patch of flowers, let's say, on your property that they just love,

they'll be like, all right, this is mine. I'm just going to go ahead and claim this. I'm going to come back here because you've got all the good stuff. My beak fits that flower just perfectly. And we'll talk here in a minute more about what they eat and why. But they will fiercely protect that little patch of flowers that they love so much and go back to it time and time again. Yes, so that's where their territoriality comes from is protecting food sources. And not just food sources like, I've been growing this patch of flowers all summer, stay away. They could stop somewhere for a half of an hour and or colloquially half hour.

And we'll still protect like that flower patch that they stopped by if somebody comes along and tries to get it. And the whole reason that they do this is because like they eat nectar along with some other stuff. And it takes a really long time for a flower to produce nectar. So the hummingbird would love to just have to go to the flower once and get the full dose of nectar,

but they can't just wait around because other things will come and eat the nectar they've been hanging out for. So they've developed this secondary behavior, which is territoriality, where they'll chase off other hummingbirds, they'll chase off other birds. They've been known to chase off hawks even, if the hawk comes a little close for their comfort. Yeah, and they'll, you know, I think early on in the hummingbird council of 1915, they said all the socialist hummingbirds got together and said, hey, if we all relax, just let that nectar build up, it'll be a lot easier to eat.

And all the other, you know, the little, I'm not going to, I don't want to get political here, but there were some hummingbirds that were like, no way man, I'm not playing ball. I'm going to get in there and get that nectar whenever I feel like it. And so the hummingbirds didn't work it out. No. And the ones, the other ones that wouldn't go along with it fired all the air traffic controlling hummingbirds. That's right. I think we should take a break.

I think so. Let's take a break and we'll finish up about what they eat and all about those little feeders that you have in your backyard right after this. For so many people living with an autoimmune condition, the emotional toll is as real as the physical symptoms. Starting this May, join host Martine Hackett for season three of Untold Stories, Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, a Ruby Studio production, and partnership with Arginics. From myasthenia gravis, or MG, to chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, also known as CIDP, Untold Stories highlights the realities of

navigating life with these conditions from challenges to triumphs. This season, Martine and her guests discuss the range of emotions that accompany each stage of the journey. Whether it's the anxiety of misdiagnosis or the relief of finding support and community, nothing is off limits. And while each story is unique, the hope they inspire is shared by all. Listen to Untold Stories, Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

["The New York Times"] For decades, the mafia had New York City in a stranglehold, with law enforcement seemingly powerless to intervene. It uses terror to extort people. But the murder of Carmichael Lonti marked the beginning of the end, sparking a chain of events that would ultimately dismantle the most powerful crime organization in American history.

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Listen to Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to know how to leverage culture to build a successful business? Then Butternomics is the podcast for you. I'm your host, Brandon Butler, founder and CEO of Butter ATL. Over my career, I've built and helped run multiple seven-figure businesses that leverage culture and built successful brands. Now I want to share what I've learned with you.

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Listen to Butternomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, I'm Lauren Lapkus, voice of Tereza and host of Haunting. In this series, we'll be bringing you different, totally true ghost stories each week straight from the person who experienced it firsthand. I'm excited to share that you can now get access

to all new episodes of Haunting, 100% ad-free, and one week early with an iHeart True Crime Plus subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. So don't wait, head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. Okay, Chuck, so everybody knows that hummingbirds eat nectar, and that's definitely true,

and they're very well adapted to eat nectar. They have this tube-like tongue that apparently uses a wicking action to soak up nectar from a flower on a plant. They do this, this tongue can actually carry a load of nectar into their mouths like 13 times a second. That's a lot. Super fast. Not that surprising that they're doing this super fast too, carry a load of nectar into their mouths like 13 times a second. That's a lot. Super fast. Not that surprising that they're doing this super fast too,

but it's still pretty impressive. But it's not just nectar, it's not the only thing that they eat. And actually people found out the hard way that they didn't just eat nectar because captured hummingbirds who were studied in captivity died pretty quickly when all they were given was like a sugar water solution or even a nectar solution. And so they came to realize that they actually eat a lot of insects too. And that's one of the great things about hummingbirds, in addition to being pollinators, they're also really big at insect controls.

And one of the insects that they eat are blood-sucking mosquitoes. Yeah, mosquitoes, little spiders. And this is in addition really big insect controls and one of the insects that they eat are blood-sucking mosquitoes. Yeah, mosquitoes, little spiders, and this is in addition to, I don't think we mentioned, the 1,000 to 2,000 flower blossoms that they will go poke every single day. So that's why, I mean, when we talk about these hummingbirds or food scavengers, up to 2,000 flowers a day, that's pretty intense. It really is. So that makes them very, very important pollinators.

Like we said in the Andes where, you know, you're above the insect line, it's just up to the hummingbirds to pollinate flowers. So when they're going from flower to flower, getting that nectar, if you pretend that evolution is a living, breathing thing, evolution has created this arrangement where the flower produces a nectar treat in exchange or to attract the little hummingbird. And then when the hummingbird's getting

its little nectar treat, the flower just kind of goes, here's a little pollen on your forehead, go find another flower that looks like me and you'll find another nectar treat and then transfer this pollen while you do. So they pollinate a lot of important stuff in addition to eating lots of bugs. So they're just all around great animals.

Yeah, and they love that nectar. If you're thinking about flowers in your own garden, if you want to attract some hummingbirds, they want a sugar content of about 26%. It can't be like a Wendy's Frosty because they're using that tongue, it acts sort of like a straw. So you've got to get that spoon with the Frosty, you can't suck that thing up. If you try, you're going to pass out in your car while you're driving.

Your eyes will cross and eeeh. So that sugar concentrate, it can't be too, too sticky. Because like I said, they're sucking that thing up. Oftentimes you'll see red or orange petals or bracts. They're often long and tubular because that long tongue and beak can get in there when others can't, so that kind of gives them the market cornered on that particular flower. It keeps out posers. It does. And this is the cool thing, those flowers that you see that sort of trumpet downward,

you know, unless you can hover, you're out of luck there. So they love these things because they can hover. Yep. So there's a lot of actually, there's a lot of plants that have flowers that kind of fit this bill. And most hummingbirds aren't really- Fit the bill? Man, that was an unintentional one. I guess fit the beak. They don't have bills.

Well, you know, a duck's bill. And ducks are birds, right? Sure. Are they? So, but they're not super specialized. They'll eat just about anything that they can get nectar out of. But there are definitely kinds of flowers that have kind of co-evolved with hummingbirds to kind of give them what they're looking for more easily. But one of the problems with human development, as with all things,

is we kind of have supplanted a lot of those kinds of flowers. The good news is, if you have heard all this and you're like, I want to encourage hummingbirds to keep living, you can plant these flowers pretty easy. Yeah, I sent this list to Emily actually, because we have our garden is very, our garden is very much built for use, for use in Emily's budding interest in herbalism

and use for the insects that we know and the birds that we know inhabit our area. So it's not just like, oh, that's pretty. Like we want it to be a real thing that works for our local environment. I can't remember who said it, but there's a famous quote that nothing useless can ever truly be beautiful.

Oh, interesting. And I have found that that is one of the truest things ever said. Nothing useless. Useless can ever truly be beautiful. I think that broke my brain. What does that mean? It just means that use, like usefulness,

like the ability for something to have a purpose is an important part of its existence. And so just beauty alone doesn't justify the existence of something. Oh, okay. That's what I thought it was saying, but something felt like a double negative in there that kind of broke my brain a little bit. You over thought it. I did overthink it. So, B-bomb, the old trumpet creeper, which was Miles Davis' nickname for a little while.

When he was drilling holes in bathroom wall. The cardinal flower, the columbine, and the coral honeysuckle are all very hummingbird-friendly flowers and plants that you can put in your yard. And I sent that to Emily and I think we have a couple of these. We used to have Columbine and Dump. She's going to bring that back and we're going to see if we can get some more hummingbird action in our backyard. That's awesome.

Some hot, sticky hummingbird action. Four seconds of pleasure. So you can also just go get yourself a hummingbird feeder. Yeah. And a lot of people put red food dye in there, and that is actually a controversial move. There's some concern among hummingbird enthusiasts that the dye actually can be harmful

over long periods of time. Maybe it can build up, because again, hummingbirds have very tiny organs because they're a very tiny bird. So introducing this artificial red dye might not be the best idea. Other people say that's totally unsubstantiated, there's never been any proof that it actually harms hummingbirds.

And then the other people say back, it's totally unnecessary, the bird's going to find the sugar water either way. So why add the red dye just in case it is harmful, if it's just unnecessary? So most hummingbird enthusiasts say, don't put red dye in your hummingbird sugar water. Yes, and that solution mixture is important. You can't just, don't just dump a bunch of syrup and water together

or a bunch of sugar cane or whatever. It is four parts water to one part sugar, because they need a specific sugar content of about 26% and that four to one makes about 25% if my math is correct. It does. It's close enough. Close enough. So, one of the other ways you can help hummingbirds too is in the most delicious way by choosing

coffee that is grown in a situation that allows hummingbirds to thrive. Yeah, this is, I didn't know about this. This is really cool. There is certified bird-friendly coffee because we were talking about the Andes and the fact that the birds travel great distances and elevations up and down these mountains. And coffee is grown about halfway up these tropical mountains. And they have a lot of great, you know, flowers under the shady canopy there. And it's a really nice home for hummingbirds there. And if you drink bird-friendly coffee, that means that they have these flowers and they're making sure they take care of these flowers.

Right. And yeah, it's grown in a kind of like a simulated forest, as closely simulated as possible. So you wanna look for something that says it's bird friendly, rainforest alliance, and or shade grown. And that probably means that hummingbirds are thriving on those coffee plantations. And I went and looked,

and my beloved Batdorf and Bronson coffees are all bird friendly and and shade-grown. Is that what you use? Oh, yeah. Same here. I'm crazy for that stuff. I've got a great, great blend for you. Trader Joe's decaf beans, half.

Okay. And the other half, Batdorf and Bronson whirling dervish. It's the most amazing combination ever. Let's give that a shot. I'm not drinking coffee now because of, it's not winter. But Emily still has her latte every morning and she just has their espresso beans. Coffee is a 365 day a year activity, Chuck.

I know, not for me, but I get it. That's okay. I'm not going to yum your yuck. Very well done. So that's it for hummingbirds, right? That's it. Well, if you want to know more about hummingbirds, get one to land in your hand

and study it up close and personal. But don't mess with it because it's protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 in the United States And you could land in jail and pay up to a two hundred thousand dollar fine for harm good And since I said two hundred thousand dollar fine everybody that means of course it's time for listener mail I'm gonna talk about the exploding birthmark Hey guys big fan of the show which I listen to while I'm cooking breakfast, doing laundry, and staring... Oh boy, get this.

And staring at 100,000 row Excel spreadsheets for work. Oh man. My soul just shuttered. I know. I recently listened to the episode on birthmarks and thought you might like to hear the story of my birthmark that exploded. I was born with two birthmarks, both of which have since been removed. One of those birthmarks was dark brownish, red, and a circle on the inside of my right thigh. I didn't think much of it because it wasn't very visible and like you said on the show, lots of people have birthmarks. However, when I was in the third grade, my family and I were about to leave for my aunt's house to celebrate Thanksgiving when I realized my pants kept sticking to my leg.

Oh man. I went to the bathroom and removed my pants and I saw blood running down my leg as a third grader who had not yet even learned about menstruation. I assumed I was dying, so I freaked out. Turns out my birthmark was the result of a vascular malformation, the size of a small bouncy ball in my inner thigh. Oh my gosh. The tangled up ball of veins had ruptured that Thanksgiving morning and I had to go to the ER where they stuck a tiny piece of foam on my leg and probably charged just about

$2,000 because hospitals. A few months later I had it surgically removed but now I have a three inch long scar instead of a birthmark but because of my surgery I wasn't allowed to run for a few weeks and I got out of running the mile so who's the winner now? Lucky. Thanks for helping me seem really knowledgeable on very specific topics and that is from Bailey. Nice Bailey, that was a great story. Pretty good. Bailey left out that, ironically, both the birthmark and the scar were in the shape of Satan. And by the way, Bailey says in the PS that the other birthmark was hemangioma on the

bottom lip that was removed. Me? So, man, that's interesting stuff. Yeah, very interesting. And what was the fact that I kept saying over and over again about hemangiomas, that they're a tangled cluster of blood vessels? I don't think so. Okay, so maybe they were two

of the same kind of birthmark. Maybe so. Well, thanks a lot, Bailey, and if you want to get in touch with us like Bailey did and share an amazing story, we're always up for those. You can get in touch with us via email these days at stuffpodcast at iHeartRadio.com. Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts,

my heart radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. For so many people living with an autoimmune condition like myasthenia gravis or chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, the emotional toll can be as real as the physical symptoms. That's why, in an all-new season of Untold Stories, Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition from Ruby Studio and Argenics, host, Martin Hackett gets to the heart of the emotional journey for individuals living with these conditions.

To find community and inspiration on your journey, listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. For decades, the mafia had New York City in a stranglehold with law enforcement seemingly powerless to intervene. It uses terror to extort people. But the murder of Carmichael Lonti marked the beginning of the end. It sent the message that we can prosecute these people.

Listen to Law & Order Criminal Justice System on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Meet the real woman behind the tabloid headlines in a personal podcast that delves into the life of the notorious Tori Spelling, as she takes us through the ups and downs of her sometimes glamorous, sometimes chaotic life and marriage.

I just filed for divorce. Whoa, I said the words that I've said, like in my head for like 16 years. Wild. Listen to Miss Spelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.