FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] painted pate puzzle

["lyneart" <lyneart@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

In my last post I told about 2 hummingbirds, one marked with a center white 
forehead spot, exchanging ownership of our new feeder (the new male had white 
on the right side of its forehead). Later, an immature male with only a few red 
throat feathers took over ownership of the feeder and I didn't get a close look 
at the older males for a couple of days. When an older male took over again, it 
had white on the left side of its forehead. 
  I began to think that something else was going on besides having a set of 
uniquely marked hummingbirds, so I began looking at the tubular flowers to be 
found nearby. Honey suckle had yellow anthers, morning glories had white 
anthers but the tube wasn't deep enough for them to bump a hummingbird's 
forehead. Then I wandered into my tobacco stubblefield. My tobacco is hanging 
in the barn and nearly cured, but some of the stubble has produced ground 
suckers which have bloomed out. I checked the burley (variety 14L8) and found 
that this hybrid had no anthers at all, but the dark air-cured (variety narrow 
leaf Madole) had sticky white anthers at the top of a 2 inch long tubular 
flower. I suspect that tobacco pollen is gummy enough to stay stuck to a 
hummingbird's feathers for a couple of days, thus solving my painted pate 
puzzle. 
Frank Lyne frank@xxxxxxxxxxx near Dot in Logan County 
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