Don't forget to like and subscribe for more neat facts to discover the world, one click at a time! Ever heard the saying, “Good things come in small packages? ” As the smallest birds in the world, hummingbirds prove just that and more.
Native to the Americas, the average hummingbird weighs 5 grams - or just as heavy as a single sheet of paper. Despite their size, being a hummingbird is no small feat. As the smallest migratory birds, hummingbirds can fly non-stop for 800km, stretching about 500 miles.
Known for flying solo, they’re also one of the only animals that can migrate without company. Aside from their remarkable flying skills, what else is there to know about the world’s tiniest birds? Watch on to find out.
Hummingbirds regularly visit over 1,000 flowers per day. Hummingbirds consume nectar for the carbohydrates in its sugar, which is their primary source of energy. Since flower nectar is the best source of sugar, the birds consume five to eight doses of it per hour.
In one day, a hummingbird visits more than 1,000 flowers to get their daily nectar fix. Hummingbird eggs are the size of jelly beans. Most female hummingbirds lay in clutches of two eggs, which they incubate for 15-18 days.
Hummingbird nests are smaller than a dollar bill. Most hummingbird nests measure 1. 5 inches in diameter, which is roughly the size of a golf ball.
Hummingbird parents weave together twigs, plant fibers, and leaves, using spider silk to bind their nests together. Generally, hummingbirds make nests for every season. Hummingbirds don’t walk.
Instead, it uses its tiny legs for perching and lateral movements. Hummingbirds eat a lot of nectar. Typically, hummingbirds consume twice their body weight in nectar for one day.
Hummingbirds have a decent lifespan. Depending on its species, hummingbirds can live for 2-5 years. The birds are named for the sound they make.
The quick flutter of a hummingbird’s wings make the titular “humming” sound they’re named for. Hummingbirds don’t have a sense of smell. However, they have good color vision due to the dense concentration of cones in their retina.
Hummingbirds have heightened color sensitivity for reds and yellows, while muting cooler tones such as blue. Hummingbirds don’t mate for life. Instead, hummingbirds simply look for mates while in heat, and likely never see each other again after they copulate.
Hummingbirds can recognize humans. Aside from recognizing flowers, they can tell which kind souls would refill their feeders for a nectar fix. In flight, hummingbirds have an average heart rate of 1200 bpm.
Aside from its size, one of the hummingbird’s most distinct traits is its crazy heartbeat. Its tiny heart pumps up to 1200 beats per minute when it’s flying around. At rest, its heart rate settles into 250 beats per minute.
Compare that to the human average of only 80-100 bpm, and you’ll see the difference. Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backwards. Hummingbirds are the only ones known in nature to be capable of flying backwards or upside down.
The secret lies in their rotating wing muscles, which allows them a wider range of motion compared to other birds. There are over 300 species of hummingbirds. A majority of these species are found in South America, while only 8 species can be found in North America.
The broad-tailed hummingbird lives in mountainous regions. The broad-tailed hummingbird lives in the highland regions spanning western Canada and the U. S.
to Guatemala and Mexico. It’s a medium-sized hummingbird known for its males’ rose-magenta colored throats. The ruby-throated hummingbirds are a solitary species.
During the summer, the ruby-throated hummingbird migrates to Northeast America, then leaving for Central America, Mexico, and Florida in the winter season. The ruby-throated hummingbird grows about 3. 5 inches long with a 3 to 4 inch wingspan.
These birds are known as solitary hummingbirds with minimal social skills. The black-chinned hummingbird is one of the smallest species. Generally speaking, hummingbirds are already pretty tiny.
However, black-chinned hummingbird is known for being one of the smallest species. These little birds are known for their black, green, and purple colors. Black-chinned hummingbirds frequently perch on bare branches as they migrate along the west coast to Mexico.
Rufous hummingbirds can fly over 3,000 km. Rufous hummingbirds may be small, but their flying skills are larger than life. These birds can fly over 3,200 kilometers during their migratory transits.
Rufous hummingbirds mostly stay in the western half of the United States, depending on the season and migration period. The Calliope hummingbird is the smallest bird in the U. S.
Aside from its bright magenta feathers, the Calliope hummingbird is known as the smallest bird in the United States. These birds are also widespread throughout Canada and Mexico. Anna's hummingbird has a long extendable tongue.
This medium-sized hummingbird is known for its unique feeding habits. Anna’s hummingbird takes nectar from flowers with a long extendable tongue that stretches as long as its bill. These birds are omnivorous, consuming insects and arthropods as part of its diet.
The bee hummingbird is the smallest bird in the world. The bee hummingbird is not just the smallest hummingbird in its class, but it is also the smallest one in the world. The female bee hummingbird is much larger than the male with an average weight of 2.
6 grams. The male bee hummingbird only weighs around 1. 95 grams.
The bee hummingbird is named for its swift and robust flight, much like the actual insect. The biggest hummingbird is the Patagona Gigas. Also known as the giant hummingbird, the Patagona Gigas towers over its species.
It can weigh up to 24 grams and reach a wingspan of 8″. However, this comes at a price: the Patagona Gigas’ average flight speed is 15 wing beats per second, which is slow for a hummingbird. Hummingbirds can migrate at night or day.
Generally, hummingbirds feed in the morning. However, at places with artificial light like porch lights, hummingbirds may hunt and eat during night time, especially during warmer seasons. When it comes to migration, hummingbirds can fly regardless of time.
Hummingbirds enter a hibernation-like state. As soon as hummingbirds fall asleep, they go into a hibernation-like mode called torpor. This state allows the birds to have a deep sleep, which lets them slow down their metabolism to a fifteenth of its normal state.
Their heart rate can drop around 50 beats per minute, slowing down their breathing. As a result, they can save up to 60% of their energy in this state. Some hummingbird species prefer not to migrate.
For unknown reasons, some hummingbirds would stay in their place and prefer not to migrate during the winter season. One theory suggests that due to its ability to hibernate, several hummingbirds can survive even without migration. For instance, some of Anna’s Hummingbird species stay on the northwest coast and some other parts of Canada all year long.
Hummingbirds can look like a dead bird while in torpor state. When hummingbirds go into a state of torpor, they hang themselves upside-down. To an observer, a sleeping hummingbird can look like a dead bird – even if someone touches them, it’s unlikely for them to wake up.
On average, it takes around 20 minutes to 1 hour for a hummingbird to awaken from the torpor state. Hummingbirds will eat 25% of their daily intake after the torpor state. As soon as hummingbirds wake up from the torpor state, the first thing they will do is to look for food.
They will binge over 25% of their daily consumption intake to restore energy and stack up nutrients. Hummingbirds are the world's smallest warm-blooded animals. Aside from the fact that the hummingbirds are the world’s smallest warm-blooded animals, they don’t have the insulating feathers commonly found in birds.
Instead, hummingbirds have a unique way of conserving energy to endure cold nights by reducing their internal thermostat at night. The rufous hummingbird is the longest migrating hummingbird species. These hummingbirds can fly close to 5,000 kilometers from their nesting grounds in Canada and Alaska to their “winter home” in Mexico.
Hummingbirds are also known as the "flying jewels". Most bird species have around 1,500-25,000 feathers. However, hummingbirds have less than 1,000 feathers.
They are known as “the flying jewels” because they can change their feather colors in flight. Hummingbirds can recognize flowers they have already visited. Hummingbirds are one of the most intelligent birds.
Compared to their body mass, they have a large brain, weighing around 4. 2% of the hummingbird total body weight. Because of this, hummingbirds can tell apart fresh flowers from the ones they have already visited.
They can also determine when a flower will refill its nectar. Hummingbirds may be tiny, but it’s always nice to learn that they have a little world of their own. This only reminds us of the small wonders of nature that we probably ignore in our day-to-day lives.
Sometimes, it doesn’t hurt to stop and take a look. If you enjoyed our video, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe to our channel for more Facts videos!
