Sunday, July 12, 2009

Hummingbirds and Pineapple



I was watching Iron Chef tonight on Food Network and the food for the challenge was fresh pineapples. The host, Alton Brown mentioned that hummingbirds are not allowed in Hawaii because with the growing of pineapple, pollination is not wanted. If the flower pollinates then seeds will develop and that is not desirable in fruit for the market. So there is a Hawaiian State law that hummingbirds cannot be brought into Hawaii.

And apparently hummingbirds (Family Trochilidae) do not migrate to the Islands from the Americas. I was surprised to learn this. I’ve not been to Hawaii but I would have thought the hummingbird would have such a ball there with all the tropical flowers.

These are recent
photos by Ted Grussing of a hummingbird nest near his home in Sedona Arizona. The nest started out with two eggs, two babies, but one was apparently kicked out of the nest or left the nest early. There is hardly room for two birds in the tiny nest. A few days ago the second one left the nest.





Hummingbirds are so much fun to watch in the yard or at a feeder.
If you like bird photographs check out Abe Lincoln's Bird Blog. Abe has some great photographs of various birds and a few animals.
And for more of Ted Grussing's Photography visit his website.

Photographs © Copyright 2009 by Ted Grussing. Used with permission.


~Linda

6 comments:

Unknown said...

That's interesting about the hummingbirds potential impact on the pineapple harvest. Like you, I would have guessed there'd be hummingbirds all over Hawaii!

Pat said...

I didn't know that about hummingbirds, or lack thereof, in Hawaii!

Great pictures of the teeny, tiny nest. How sad that there isn't enough room for the babies, though

Ronda Laveen said...

This is very interesting. I just finished watching an Alton Brown program on fudge making and the second blog I come to read is about Alton.

He didn't say anything about bees did he? I wouldn't think they want them either. I have lots of hummers in my yard. They love my flowers.

Hilary said...

Those photos are amazing. I'd have never thought that humming birds were not in Hawaii either.

Betsy said...

I was surprised they don't allow hummingbirds in Hawaii...they seem like they were made for each other. I was even more surprised that Chef Nawab lost out to Chef Symon!

Anonymous said...

I agree with Rhonda. Bees would pollinate the pineapples just as hummingbirds would. Flowers can't survive without bees, so Hawaii MUST have bees. So what's the diff?