each player is provided with their own hummingbird and they take turns letting their bird choose a nectar-filled straw.

as the hummingbird sucks the nectar from the straw of its choice, a vacuum is created and the straw temporarily adheres to the beak of the bird which will instinctively back away and extract the straw neatly from the pile.

as each little bird gets fatter and more heavily gorged, its ability to hover at height will decrease and it will choose straws from lower in the pile, thus increasing the chances of overturning the heap. a sleepy bird will not be as alert with its sticks as his greedy counterpart and will not be so elegant in its withdrawal performance.

a bird on a losing team that misses many turns may regain its appetite and re-enter the game afresh, hover at higher levels, removing easier straws and overturning the game.
-- po, Dec 20 2005

the f(ood) word http://www.channel4...microsites/F/fword/
[po, Dec 21 2005]

I put good beer in a hummingbird feeder once...You could see the shock on their faces when they tasted the hops.

I felt bad, I changed it out again immediately, but it was one of those moments.
-- normzone, Dec 20 2005


Hmmm interesting. +
-- DesertFox, Dec 20 2005


Birds are that clever?

Mmmm...
-- The Kat, Dec 21 2005


Are the birds going to want to play this game every 15 minutes? This is worse than having a 4-year-old!
-- phundug, Dec 21 2005


they have to play or we eat them.
-- po, Dec 21 2005


the straws must be sealed at one end to retain the nectar. the birds beak must make an airtight seal at the other end. would it not therefore be impossible for it to suck out the liquid? how does one determine the force quantity of a hummingbird suck?
-- rainbow, Dec 21 2005


With a golf ball and a garden hose.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 22 2005


What if the straw doesn't come off? Then it turns into a game of "Oh Shit, the Hummingbird's Dead."
-- notmarkflynn, Dec 22 2005


ever stuck your face into a yoghurt pot and inhaled till it sticks to your face? regular breathing - inhaling and exhaling seems to release the yoghurt pot easily enough.
-- po, Dec 22 2005


empty or full?
-- rainbow, Dec 23 2005


either?
-- po, Dec 28 2005


I've heard tales of hummingbirds being fed vodka cut with grenadine. They pass out drunk in your hand for a few seconds, but their metabolism burns so rapidly they sober up and fly off shortly. Not a kind thing to do without explaining the hangover potential first to the bird.
-- normzone, Dec 30 2005


the shorter the life of the creature; their perception of it is longer as they whizz around at greater speeds than us and seeing us as incredibly slooooooow - hence our difficulty in catching them. those few moments in norm's tale might have been a week's dreadful drunken hangover to our hb friends. (hummingbird that is)
-- po, Dec 30 2005


Would prefer to see the same thing only with people doing it, hanging from the ceiling like Angelina Jolie (as Lara Croft) supported on elastic bungees, and bouncing around as they became more and more bloated with whatever gunge they were imbibing, as the infinitely more intelligent hummingbirds looked on impassively - but + despite animal abuse reservations
-- xenzag, Dec 30 2005


Woohoo [xenzag]

[+] for including //hummingbird sucks// into the idea.
-- skinflaps, Jan 24 2007


A nectar filled, hummingbird peppered, alchobun for this glorious idea.

Got to go any try out that yoghurt-pot trick now.
-- zen_tom, Jan 24 2007



random, halfbakery