This is bird note.

Put up a nectar feeder for hummingbirds,

and you may soon enjoy the thrill of the tiny gems hovering right outside your windows.

But you might also entice other birds that have a sweet tooth.

Have you seen a larger bird dipping its sharp bill into your hummingbird feeder?

It's probably an oriel.

You're most likely to see Baltimore and orchard oriels in the east and bullocks or hooded

Orioles in the west. These birds whose bright colors spice up our summer spend their winters

in the tropics where they often drink nectar from flowers.

The same goes for smaller birds, like Tennessee warblers, often seen at flowers during migration.

But many birds shun nectar. Birds need the enzyme sucrace in their bodies

in order to digest the sucrose of nectar,

and most simply don't have enough.

Scientists think birds that can readily digest sugar,

like warblers, have an adaptive advantage.

When they fly to the tropics for the colder months,

they can tap into sources of sugar that other birds just can't handle. That sweet tooth it turns out is important to their survival.

For bird note I'm Michael Stein. you're