Amazing Hummingbirds
Fascinating Hummers
Whenever we talk about hummingbirds, people's eyes light up, smiles cross their faces, and they are full of curiosity. How tiny are hummingbirds? How fast can their wings beat? How can they migrate all the way across the Gulf of Mexico? How much do they weigh? In this section we have gathered together some of the most fascinating facts about hummingbirds to answer your questions and fuel your sense of amazement.
Size
— A ruby-throated hummingbird weighs 3 grams, or one tenth the weight of a first-class letter.
— The smallest hummingbird in the world, the bee hummingbird of Cuba, is only 2 1/4 inches long.
— Hummingbirds have the largest known relative heart size of all birds. Their heart represents 2.4 percent of their body weight.
— Of all birds, hummingbirds lay the smallest eggs. A hummingbird's egg is less than half an inch long — half the size of a jellybean.
Eating
— An average hummingbird consumes half its weight in sugar each day.
— If an average man had a metabolism comparable to that of a hummingbird, he would have to eat 285 pounds of hamburger every day to maintain his weight.
— Hummingbirds feed 5 to 8 times each hour, but for about 30 to 60 seconds at a time.
Speed
— A male ruby-throated hummingbird's wings can beat 78 times per second during regular flight and up to 200 times per second during a display dive.
— A hummingbird's heart beats 1,260 times per minute.
—A resting hummingbird takes 250 breaths per minute.
An ostrich egg compared with that of a hummingbird — the largest and the smallest in the bird world.
A male broad-billed hummingbird doing the kind of aerobatics that come naturally to him.
Flight
— A male Allen's hummingbird can fly 45 miles per hour during the dive display.
— Hummingbirds can fly forward, backward, and even upside down briefly, which they accomplish by spreading their tail and doing a backward somersault.
— A hummingbird's flight (or pectoral) muscles account for one quarter of its total weight (compared to 5 percent in humans).
— Hummingbirds bathe by flying through sprinklers or spray from waterfalls. They may also flutter in wet foliage or dip in a shallow puddle.
— The rufous hummingbird has the longest migration route of any hummingbird. Some fly up to 3,000 miles from their breeding range in Alaska to their wintering grounds in Mexico.
— Ruby-throated hummingbirds fly 500 miles nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico on their migration. Before starting, they increase their body weight by 50 percent, storing energy as fat to burn while crossing.
Other Wonders
— Hummingbirds are fiercely aggressive and will attack much larger birds, including jays, crows, and even hawks.
— There are actually insects called hummingbird moths, or sphinx moths — large day-time flying moths that people mistake for hummingbirds at flowers. A hummingbird moth weighs 2.3 grams — more than some hummingbirds.
— Hummingbirds do not have a sense of smell, as far as is known. They locate their food by eyesight, investigating colorful blossoms for nectar and picking small insects out of the air and off leaves.
— Hummingbirds can live up to 12 years although many live only 3 to 5 years.