Hummingbird Singing a Beautiful song.
Hummingbirds belong to the avian family Trochilidae and their closest relatives are the equally fascinating swifts. Hummingbirds are small (2-20 grams), with long narrow bills, and small saber-like wings.
Males (and occasionally females) often have a colorful gorget (see sidebar): small, stiff, highly reflective, colored feathers on the throat and upper chest. These shiny feathers and others around the head may look sooty black until a hummer turns its head to catch the sun and display the intense metallic spectral color.
Hummingbird Superlatives
The Smallest Birds: The bee hummingbird of Cuba is only 1.95 grams, which means that theoretically 16 could be mailed first class for 39 cents. The calliope hummingbird, the fourth smallest bird, weighs in at a whopping 2.5 grams (less than an ounce) and can be found in the mountains of western North America.
The Tiniest Egg: The smallest birds come from the smallest eggs. Makes sense. But how small? The one to two eggs in a ruby-throated hummingbird clutch are about as tiny as peas and are placed in a walnut-shell sized cup woven from spider webs and plant material.
The Avian Helicopter: Hummingbirds and swifts are able to stroke with power both on the down- and up-beat of a wing flap. Their power and small size allow tremendous agility in flight. In fact, hummingbirds are the only vertebrates capable of sustained hovering—staying in one place during flight—and they can fly backwards and upside down as well.
To their maneuverability, hummingbirds add speed and stamina. Hummingbirds have been clocked at close to 30 mph indirect flight and more than 45 mph during courtship dives. Migratory ruby-throated hummingbirds have no problem flying 18 to 20 straight hours to cross the Gulf of Mexico, powered by their fat stores and given a bit of help from winds.
Life in the Fastlane: A ruby-throated hummingbirds heart beats from 225 times a minute when the bird is at rest to more than 1,200 times per minute when its flying around. Its wings beat about 70 times per second in direct flight and over 200 times per second while diving.
Asleep on the Job: Hummingbirds are one of the few groups of birds that are known to go into torpor. Torpor is a very deep sleep-like state in which metabolic functions are slowed to a minimum and a very low body temperature is maintained. If torpor lasted for long periods, we would call it hibernation, but hummingbirds can go into torpor any night of the year when temperature and food conditions demand it.
Hummingbirds are the masters of torpor because the have to be. Their feathers offer poor insulation and they have incredibly high metabolic demands. Torpor allows them to check-out physiologically when they cant maintain their normal 105° body temperature.
Calliope Hummingbird
Where Do Hummingbirds Live?
The almost 340 species of hummingbirds are entirely restricted to the New World, where they can be found from Tierra Del Fuego to southern Alaska and from below sea level deserts to steamy tropical forests up to 16,000 feet in the Andes of South America.
Most species live in the tropics, and while 17 species regularly nest in the United States, many of these are found close to the Mexican border. Most areas in the U.S. have one or two breeding species, and only the ruby-throated hummingbird nests east of the Mississippi.
Hummingbird Singing a Beautiful song. Birdsong and Sounds.
What is a hummingbird?Hummingbirds belong to the avian family Trochilidae and their closest relatives are the equally fascinating swifts. Hummingbirds are small (2-20 grams), with long narrow bills, and small saber-like wings.
Males (and occasionally females) often have a colorful gorget (see sidebar): small, stiff, highly reflective, colored feathers on the throat and upper chest. These shiny feathers and others around the head may look sooty black until a hummer turns its head to catch the sun and display the intense metallic spectral color.
Hummingbird Superlatives
The Smallest Birds: The bee hummingbird of Cuba is only 1.95 grams, which means that theoretically 16 could be mailed first class for 39 cents. The calliope hummingbird, the fourth smallest bird, weighs in at a whopping 2.5 grams (less than an ounce) and can be found in the mountains of western North America.
The Tiniest Egg: The smallest birds come from the smallest eggs. Makes sense. But how small? The one to two eggs in a ruby-throated hummingbird clutch are about as tiny as peas and are placed in a walnut-shell sized cup woven from spider webs and plant material.
The Avian Helicopter: Hummingbirds and swifts are able to stroke with power both on the down- and up-beat of a wing flap. Their power and small size allow tremendous agility in flight. In fact, hummingbirds are the only vertebrates capable of sustained hovering—staying in one place during flight—and they can fly backwards and upside down as well.
To their maneuverability, hummingbirds add speed and stamina. Hummingbirds have been clocked at close to 30 mph indirect flight and more than 45 mph during courtship dives. Migratory ruby-throated hummingbirds have no problem flying 18 to 20 straight hours to cross the Gulf of Mexico, powered by their fat stores and given a bit of help from winds.
Life in the Fastlane: A ruby-throated hummingbirds heart beats from 225 times a minute when the bird is at rest to more than 1,200 times per minute when its flying around. Its wings beat about 70 times per second in direct flight and over 200 times per second while diving.
Asleep on the Job: Hummingbirds are one of the few groups of birds that are known to go into torpor. Torpor is a very deep sleep-like state in which metabolic functions are slowed to a minimum and a very low body temperature is maintained. If torpor lasted for long periods, we would call it hibernation, but hummingbirds can go into torpor any night of the year when temperature and food conditions demand it.
Calliope Hummingbird
Where Do Hummingbirds Live?
The almost 340 species of hummingbirds are entirely restricted to the New World, where they can be found from Tierra Del Fuego to southern Alaska and from below sea level deserts to steamy tropical forests up to 16,000 feet in the Andes of South America.
Most species live in the tropics, and while 17 species regularly nest in the United States, many of these are found close to the Mexican border. Most areas in the U.S. have one or two breeding species, and only the ruby-throated hummingbird nests east of the Mississippi.
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