How Hummingbirds Use Their Sense of Smell

A Moment of Science · Feb 23, 2026 · 2m

Hummingbirds have a voracious appetite for nectar, the sugary fluid secreted by flowers. To survive, they usually drink between five and fourteen times their weight in nectar every day. Finding all that nectar isn’t easy. Some flowers may have already been emptied of nectar by other visitors, or might be occupied by dangerous insects such as ants.

Biologists want to understand how hummingbirds use their senses to find the right flowers to feed at. They have long known that these tiny birds can locate flowers by vision. Although vultures are known to use the sense of smell to detect the…