Fun Facts About Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds’ nests are remarkable works of nature’s art. Here’s what to know if you’re lucky enough to spot one in your garden. If you live in an area that is populated by hummingbirds during their breeding season, which is generally mid-spring through summer, you might be lucky enough to spot a hummingbird tending to her eggs or chicks. Here’s what to know about these amazing, tiny hummingbirds.
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Many kinds of Hummingbirds
There are many different kinds or species of hummingbirds all of them live in the Americas: North, Central, or South. The ruby-throated hummingbird named for the ruby red marking on the males chest is the most common hummingbird in the United States.
That Beautiful Bird
The first Europeans to come to the Americas had never seen hummingbirds but the Spanish soon gave them a special name: joyas voladoras “flying jewels”
How Tiny?
Some species of hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world a fully grown ruby-throated hummingbird is about the size of an adult thumb and it weighs only as much as a penny.
Really Really Tiny
A mother hummingbird typically lays two eggs Each of which is about the size of a pea the female hummingbird builds the nest usually located on a tree branch and made of twigs and leaves the egg hatches in about 2 weeks and the mother feeds the Tiny Birds until they are ready to fly then the young birds take off and don’t return to their nest.
Who Needs a Nest?
Not grown hummingbirds so where and how do they sleep hummingbirds sleep on a branch while sitting on their thin legs when they wake off they go again.
Winging It
A hummingbird needs to rotate its wings rapidly to fly in many directions. How fast do they move? The wings of a ruby-throated hummingbird vibrate more than 50 times per second that’s so fast you can barely see them!
A Little Bird with a Big Appetite
A ruby throated hummingbird beats about every 10 to 15 minutes throughout the day it Feast on insects and flower nectar. A hummingbird with its sharp eyes and quick movements catches and consumes more than 300 insects a day.
Learn all about Homemade Hummingbird Nectar, here.
No Sniffing Here
Hummingbirds have no sense of smell. Instead they identify Flowers by sight they seek out brightly colored flowers with tube or trumpet like petals such flowers are easy to explore for nectar with the birds long beak.
Not a Singer
Hummingbirds aren’t songbirds. Their main sound is a kind of metallic cheap cheap cheap but the noise can get quite loud and Lively especially when he’s feeding bird is telling another hungry Hummer to go away.
Just Me, Myself and I
Except for the brief meeting season individual hummingbirds live mostly solitary lives the same holds for their long migration trips hummingbirds do not migrate in flocks rather its each bird for itself scientists think that by flying solo the birds are less noticeable and therefore safer from predators that if they flew in large flocks.
More Than a Few Days
The migration trips of hummingbirds can cover more than 15,000 miles the long trip of a ruby-throated hummingbird is filled with numerous tops for food and rest and it takes many weeks and there’s more after it arrives in Florida at usually crosses the Gulf of Mexico a distance of about five hundred miles in a single nonstop flight that last around 24 hours sometimes the Hummers avoid crossing the Gulf Waters by flying around the golf over land.
How do They Know When and Where to Go?
Sometimes scientists believe that hummingbirds are very sensitive to changes in daylight letting them know that winter is coming others believe that a chemical change and the bird’s body suggests it’s time to go but at the moment no one knows for sure.
Feisty Hummingbirds Defend Their Territory
Hummingbirds are tiny but they can be come a grass of Fighters often the Birds fight to protect a feeding site most fights end in one or more words flying away but a hummingbird’s long pointed beak can still inflict injury.
Our hummingbirds are definitely feisty, you can check them out on our hummingbird cam on Instagram @hummingbird.acres
