Just read this in an e-Nature mailing and never realized what two-timers male hummingbirds were:

It's easy to sum up the child-rearing role of a male hummingbird: he doesn't play one. The female builds the nest, sits on the eggs alone, and feeds herself and her young. Meanwhile, her mate is either trying to court neighboring females or chasing other hummers away from some prime nectar source.

In many hummingbird species, the female may start incubating a second clutch of eggs while she is still solely responsible for feeding the young from her first brood of the season. In midsummer, while mom cares simultaneously for both eggs and fledgling young, there don't seem to be any males around at all. Where are they? Mexico! That's right, as soon as the mating part of the breeding season draws to a close, males begin to move southward, heading to their winter homes in Mexico and Central America, where they will stake out the best territories before the exhausted females and young of the year arrive.

"Hummingbird, don't fly away, fly away, dah-dah-dah-DAH."
That song shoulda been sung by female vocalists, huh?

Bird regards,
WordWhistler

This is more than made up for by the penguins. The males take the eggs and keep them nice and toasty warm tucked safely between their feet and their bellies in the Antarctic cold with nothing to eat while the females go off cavorting in the sea.

RE: while the females go off cavorting in the sea.


egg productions is a major effort for most birds.. (kiwi's produce the biggest egg, relative to body size) but even small eggs are packed full of fat (the yolk) and protein, as well as having a hard shell.. the resourses for egg production are what the mother contributes. Not to mention laying the egg!

female hummingbirds get a really bad deal.. male penguins are don't suffer that much.. and once the chick is hatch, both parents feed.. so really all the female is doing while waiting for egg to hatch is replenishing her reserves.. all the male is doing is fasting for a short while. (living off the built up reserves-- not fiving the reserves to a egg!)

Now we discover that the male chickadees have singing contests in the morning and if the lady decides that her mate was gotten the better of she sneaks off for a quickie with the one she deemed the winner before her hubby gets back home.

Harrumph®!