This is bird note.

To a connoir, not all sugars taste the same.

A hummingbird dips its long slender bill into a scarlet tube-shaped flower

to reach the nectar deep within.

When it flies off, the bird carries pollen from the plant, which it rubs off on the next flower from which it sips.

Like some bees, hummingbirds specialize in nectar feeding and are essential pollinators.

Even though they also eat tiny insects, they are the ultimate nectar connoisseurs and the sugar they prefer and seek in flowers is

sucrose. Other kinds of birds, less specialized to nectar, also visit flowers for a taste of the sweet stuff.

The flowers they visit likely have a more open shape,

with nectar more accessible to a non-specialists bill.

These birds may still be important pollinators,

but the sugar they sample is likely different

from what hummingbirds prefer.

As flowering plants and birds co-evolved, each to benefit from the other,

it seems likely that plants evolved the type of sugar best suited to the pollinators on hand,

offering it in their flowers.

It's a win-win for all concerned.

The plants that need the birds, and the birds that want the sugar.

But not just any sugar, the right sugar. The