10 interesting facts about hummingbirds Hummingbirds are another potential danger to humanity (1 photo)

They have some kind of supernatural physical capabilities. The ratio of body length to speed in hummingbirds is greater than that of a bullet fighter and a space shuttle during entry into the atmosphere. Can you imagine? They have a speed of 400 of their bodies per second.

This is because the smallest hummingbirds make up to 100 wing beats per second. Fuck knows how they do it. But they, thanks to such a speed of the swing, hang motionless in the air. And you will not even immediately understand that it is - the human eye is not able to catch such. A bright spot hangs. And this is a hummingbird.

But that's not all. Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly not only forward, but also sideways, and even backward. Have you ever seen an eagle flying with its ass forward? That's right, no. Because he can't. Hummingbirds also know how to dive and instantly brake in the air.

They spend a huge amount of energy on all these tricks, so they eat all the time. Hummingbirds are the most insatiable birds on Earth. They eat twice their weight per day.
And do you think such monsters are able to get enough of one nectar? Fuck it there. Hummingbirds are predators. Their main food is insects living in flowers.

An insect sits on a flower, which has read fairy tales about adorable hummingbirds, and does not worry about anything. And then a bright spot flies up, wraps its long tongue around it and pulls it into its mouth.
“Wait, wait,” the unfortunate victim yells. - But you're a cute hummingbird, you eat nectar!
- Yes, right now, I wash down the meat with nectar, - the hummingbird answers gloomily, and laughs infernally.
Eerie simple, "Predator" of some kind.

To all its delight, hummingbirds have an extremely bad temper. They get everyone around. Hummingbirds do not get along in flocks, they constantly pound each other to death. For example, they can fight for comfortable flowers with feeding. And they are not afraid to attack large birds, especially if they fly up to their nests. Poor big birds don't even see what has attacked them.
Even hummingbirds scream like hell in a thin voice.

Hummingbirds never land on the ground, they devour on the fly. I have not found any information on how hummingbirds sleep. And you don't need to tell me, I don't want to know. Imagination draws a picture: night, darkness, and blurry spots of hummingbirds sleeping right in the air.

And then there is a hawk moth, whose wing movement is exactly the same as that of a hummingbird. And so they are often confused. The devil knows what the spot above the flower is hanging. Like, oh, what a lovely hummingbird! And then it hits you, and you see that it is a nasty fat butterfly with a dead head on its back. All around the nightmare.

In short, you need to pray that hummingbirds do not evolve. And then what if they grow up? Imagine a bird weighing twenty kilograms, which can fly ass forward, moves at the speed of a fighter, yells like a chainsaw, and eats twice its weight. Are there people here who weigh 40 kg? Be afraid. And think how much they would shit with such an appetite?

But even if that happens, the hummingbirds will first fly to England to avenge their own. Because in the Victorian era, ladies loved to hang dead hummingbirds on themselves. Their stuffed animals were used to make hats, brooches and even earrings. So I see a noble lady who comes into secular society, and dead birds dangle in her ears. So England is fucked up.

Therefore, the hummingbird is not a fucking mimic. This is, damn it, another potential danger to humanity.

Probably, in one form or another, everyone has heard the word "hummingbird". But not everyone knows the hummingbird and its fantastic features. This is what we want to tell those who love.

However, do not forget that the largest representatives of this family of birds reach 21 cm in size.

Hummingbird appearance

The hummingbird has a stunningly bright color. Its plumage shimmers and shines, reminiscent of a sparkling gem. The first time you see this tiny miracle, you will be amazed at how extraordinary color shimmers in direct sunlight.

The names of some representatives of these birds are quite consistent with their appearance. Some of them are: "Emerald Neck", "Fire Topaz", "Flying Amethyst", etc.

Hummingbird family life

The nests of the smallest birds are created from any "auxiliary" material. It can be blades of grass with cobwebs, and animal hairs, and even small pieces of tree bark.

Nest sizes range from the size of a simple cup to the size of a walnut. And really, why a big nest for the hummingbird family, whose members are 3 cm long!

In such a miniature house, a hummingbird lays two eggs, no larger than a pea in diameter.

Despite its limited size, the hummingbird is a very brave bird. She selflessly defends her family when something threatens her. Attacking the enemy with all determination, it pierces the eyes or nose of the enemy with its small and sharp beak.

An interesting fact is that hummingbirds do not create married couples the way birds usually do. Females take care of the offspring on their own.

Hummingbird food

The hummingbird feeds on the nectar of flowers, and does it extremely gracefully and gracefully. Even children know that hummingbirds are the only bird in the world that can hang in the air. Having found a flower, she flies up to him, and if it is impossible to sit on it, she hangs in the air, taking out precious nectar.

But this is very energy intensive. Therefore, the hummingbird makes about 80 flaps of its wings per second (!) In order to stay in the air in one place.

Surprisingly, some types of flowers by their structure are such that only this miniature bird can pollinate them. That's really really mysterious!

However, the hummingbird feeds on more than just the nectar of flowers. Individuals of larger sizes can eat caught in the cobweb.

Interestingly, the features of hummingbird flight require a lot of energy, as we said. It is for this reason that she has to eat something every 10 minutes. Thus, she eats food more than her own weight per day.

Flying hummingbird

The hummingbird flight style is the most unique among all the birds. An interesting fact is that hummingbirds are the only bird in the world that can fly backwards. Such a fantastic ability is due to the fact that the flying birds of this wonderful bird make up about 30% of its total weight.

Thanks to this, they can maneuver backwards, sideways, land vertically and hover in the air. But during the mating season, the hummingbird, caring for a partner, develops the speed of flapping its wings up to 100 times per second.

The flight speed of a hummingbird, given its diminutiveness, is extremely high and amounts to 80 kilometers per hour. By the way, we recommend reading about which one. Very interesting facts.

Unusual heart

The heart of a hummingbird bird takes up about half of the body and is almost three times the size of the stomach. This is not surprising, because such an intense flight requires an incredibly powerful heart muscle. The frequency of contractions is on average 500 beats per minute, but in flight it reaches 1000-1200 beats.

The amazing abilities of hummingbirds

It seems incredible, but the hummingbird has a great memory. Scientists have noticed that she never sits on flowers, from which all the nectar has been drunk. This ability is all the more amazing because the size of the brain of a hummingbird is only a grain of rice.

An interesting fact is that if we compare the body length of a hummingbird and the speed that it develops, then this figure will be greater than that of a fighter with the afterburner turned on. This phenomenon has been proven with modern powerful video cameras.

But opening its wings, this amazing bird demonstrates such instant braking that is inaccessible to any living organism in the world that maneuvers in the air.

Hummingbird bird photo

Tiny hummingbird feeder

Some hummingbird species have very long beaks.

The sword-beak hummingbird has the longest beak, which is the same length as the body itself together with the tail.

The hummingbird is the smallest bird on the planet. She is not afraid of people and makes nests near human houses. Birds can fly close to a person and even sit on his arm or shoulder.

The hummingbird belongs to the order of the swift. Habitat in the western part of South America. In the countries located in the south, they rarely live. These birds live in the mountains. The eggs that the birds lay do not freeze, the females maintain their temperature within 25 degrees Celsius. The hummingbird adapts to any ambient temperature. Before flying, birds accumulate a thick layer of subcutaneous fat.

They benefit nature and agriculture. Birds carry pollen on their paws and pollinate plants.

The ancient inhabitants of the city of Teotiukan believed that the hummingbird is the embodiment of the souls of warriors who died in battle.

Bird skins were used by people as jewelry. This was the reason for the hunt for hummingbirds and a large decrease in their number in nature.

Structural features

The smallest bird has a peculiar appearance. The birds have a large bone ridge in the chest area. The birds have well-developed wings, they have a rather long brush. Forearms and short shoulder are less developed. There are 10 flight feathers in the wings.

The tail of most birds has the same structure, it consists of 10 feathers. The rocket-tail type has 4 tail feathers.

Feet are not suitable for walking. They are small, long claws grow on the fingers.

The proboscis (beak) is long. It can be straight or curved. The sword-billed hummingbird has a straight beak and exceeds the length of its own body. The beak has no setae at the base, and its upper part encloses the lower one with its edges.

The tongue of these tiny birds is forked and long.

The color is varied, depending on the type of bird. More often, the coloring is bright, with metallic reflections.

The crest is inherent in all species and comes in different shapes. It is formed on the head from a bunch of feathers.

In females and males, the appearance is different. In males, the color is more variegated, and the tail and tuft feathers are of a varied and bizarre shape. The female's color is dimmer than that of the male, and the crest and tail are more modest, they are not as lush and attractive.

A heart

The hummingbird has a high movement speed. The heart of these birds beats very quickly. During flight, the heart beats 1200 per minute, and when the bird is resting - 500 beats.

Tiny dimensions

The size of the hummingbird surprises many as it is the smallest representative of birds. Scientists have discovered species, the size of which reached 7 centimeters, and they weighed 1.6-2 grams, they are called hummingbirds-bees. There are representatives of this species of birds that are larger than most, they are 20.6 cm long and weigh about 20 grams.

Memory

Despite the fact that representatives of this species have a brain barely larger than a grain of ordinary rice, they have a good memory. The hummingbird does not fly up to the flower from which it has already drunk nectar.

Flight style

This miniature bird has a unique flying style:

• has a high flight speed;
• can fly backwards;
• has the ability to fly sideways;
• rise in flight to an altitude of 4000-5000 meters above sea level;
• in flight, they can hover in one place, describing "8" with their wings during flapping.

Kinds

There are 350 known hummingbird species. The name of the bird comes from the Latin word Trochilidae. Belongs to the family of small birds, which belongs to the order Swift. The first hummingbird was discovered in Germany, its age was 30 million years.

Number, population

There are many known places where hummingbirds live, because they live in places with a lot of flowers. They prefer mountainous areas and humid forests.

Some species, for example, the smallest ones live in Cuba, and the ruby-throated one - in Canada.

How many waves per second does a hummingbird make?

The flight speed is high and is almost 80 km / h. The smallest representatives of this species make a buzzing sound. This is due to the quick action of the wings. A hummingbird flaps its wings 80-100 times in 1 second, and larger individuals make 8-10 flaps in 1 second. Due to the fast work of small wings, when looking at the bird it seems that instead of the wings there is something blurry and indistinct, since at such a speed it is impossible to see them.
Hummingbird records:

• no flying creature on the planet is capable of reacting to obstacles in flight with the same lightning speed;
• the hummingbird has a flight technique that is inaccessible to other birds; it can fly not only straight, but also move backward in flight, and on the sides - to the right and to the left;
• even small members of the hummingbird species can drink about 120 times within 16 hours and eat more of their weight.

Reproduction

Hummingbirds are polygamous. The nest is twisted by the female, fixing it on bushes, trees or leaves. Some birds to glue the nest components together. To create a house, the bird uses: branches, fluff, moss, lichens, leaves, blades of grass.

They breed in their permanent habitat. Lays 2 small white eggs, which are incubated by the female. Newborn chicks look unattractive - after hatching, babies are bald, weak and helpless. It takes 14-19 days to hatch eggs. After hatching from eggs, chicks do not leave the cozy nest for 20-25 days. This time they spend on getting stronger and gaining strength before the first flight.

When the female equips the nest and raises offspring, the male monitors the safety of the family and housing.

Food

The birds feed on pollen, insects that sit in flowers and on leaves. Do not eat while on the ground. They are eaten exclusively in flight. They drink and eat a lot.

When a bird drinks nectar from a flower, it lowers its tongue into the flower neck 20 times per second. When immersed in nectar, half of the tongue unfolds on the sides, captures the contents, and then folds back and carries food into the hummingbird's beak.

Natural enemies of the bird

At large, birds live up to 9 years. In captivity, the bird will live less. Poachers hunt hummingbirds and sell them, but the price per bird is quite high. In addition to humans, tree snakes and a tarantula are dangerous to hummingbirds.

Hummingbirds are very brave. They can attack a bird that is larger than them. During the breeding season, their courage and fighting spirit is especially strong.

Hummingbirds are very amazing birds that are so small that they look more like bees. 330 species of these tiny birds live in nature. They are related to our swifts, which are giants in comparison with them.

The size of a hummingbird is no more than 2! centimeters, weight - no more than 5 grams. But there is also a giant among these birds - the giant hummingbird. Its length is almost 20 centimeters. However, 1/2 of the length is the tail.

These birds are the smallest among vertebrates. In terms of proportions, the body resembles the structure of our sparrows. But hummingbirds have very small and weak legs, so they cannot walk on the ground. And sitting on a branch takes a lot of energy from them: the bird clasps the branch with both legs, and does not just sit on its paws.

The hummingbird is a bird of flight. They are in this state almost all their lives. They are forced to constantly look for food for themselves, because their energy consumption is very high.

Hummingbirds do not have hovering and gliding phases in flight. They are forced to flap their wings 100 times per second. Otherwise, they will fall to the ground. How many calories are required in this case is not difficult to calculate - a lot! That is why they scurry about the flowers in search of nectar - their main delicacy.

Hummingbirds have special wings that are not like all birds. They are more like the wings of butterflies. And also - a huge heart, almost half of the entire body. And all this in order to withstand the loads during flight.

If the hummingbird stops eating for at least half an hour, then it will die from exhaustion. The metabolism of this baby is incredibly rapid!

Hear the hummingbird voice

Another distinctive feature of this bird is its feathers. They have the unique ability to change color from the refracted sun color. Therefore, the color of the same bird will always be different, depending on the angle of view and sunlight. This can only be compared with the tints of a diamond, which is why hummingbirds are called feathered jewels.

All hummingbird species live in the Americas. The ruby-headed hummingbird is a migratory bird. He lives in North America, and in the summer (there the seasons go the other way around: when we have summer, there is winter, and vice versa) he flies to Mexico, overcoming 5000 kilometers at a speed of 80 km / h.

Hummingbirds are loners. During the day they are forced to constantly look for food and eat, and at night ... they hibernate, like our brown bears. It only lasts only one night. This bird cannot survive with normal sleep. She will starve to death in just 1 hour. Therefore, such a "numbness" mechanism is the only way to survive at night without food.

Why do Hummingbirds only eat nectar and pollen?

Because these foods are extremely rich in carbohydrates, which are so necessary to maintain the vitality of this malipusa. But there is practically no protein, which is necessary for all living things. Therefore, hummingbirds eat small insects.

If you create the top of the most voracious animals, then the hummingbird will be in 1st place. She eats 3 times more food per day than she weighs!

Northern hummingbirds breed only in summer. Inhabitants of the tropics - all year round. Males only mate with the female in between feeding. Everything else (from building a nest and raising and rearing offspring) is the care of the female.

Mommy builds a nest from the smallest blades of grass, hairs and even a cobweb in the form of a hemisphere.

The nest is fixed on the thinnest twigs or leaves. A heavy predator cannot resist them and get a nest with small chicks.

Hummingbird egg weight - 2 grams! There are usually no more than two of them. The female needs to incubate them for about 18 days.

Calling the hummingbird the smallest bird on the planet is not entirely correct: only one species from the vast family of the same name can bear this title. It is light as an ostrich feather and similar to the large bumblebee Mellisuga helenae or the bee hummingbird.

Appearance, description of the hummingbird bird

The order of hummingbirds is represented by a single, but very numerous and variegated hummingbird family, known to ornithologists under the Latin name Trochilidae.

Hummingbirds are similar in anatomy to passerines: they have an equally short neck, long wings, and a medium head. This is where the similarity ends - passerines cannot boast of either a huge "assortment" of beaks, or the magnificent feathers that nature has endowed with hummingbirds.

Males (against the background of females) have a more festive appearance due to the bright color and intricate feathers on the head and tail, often taking the form of bunches or crests. The beak can be perfectly straight or curved up / down, very long (half body) or rather modest.

It is interesting!The peculiarity of the beak is the upper half that encloses its lower part, as well as the absence of bristles at the base and a long forked tongue extending far beyond the mouth.

Due to their weak short legs, hummingbirds do not jump on the ground, but they can cling to branches and sit there. However, birds do not particularly lament over weak limbs, devoting most of their lives to aeronautics.

Plumage and wings

The wing of a hummingbird resembles a wing of a butterfly: the bones in it grow together so that the bearing surface, turning into a single plane, increases significantly. Controlling such a wing requires special mobility of the shoulder joint and a good mass of flying muscles: in hummingbirds, they account for 25-30% of the total weight.

The tail, despite the variety of forms, consists of almost all species of 10 feathers. The exception is the racket-tailed hummingbird, in whose tail there are 4 tail feathers.

Due to the brightness, variety and metallic sheen of plumage, hummingbirds are often referred to as feathered jewels. The greatest credit for the flattering name belongs to the amazing property of feathers: they refract light depending on the angle of view.

From one angle, the plumage may seem emerald, but as soon as the bird slightly changes its position, the green color instantly turns into scarlet.

Hummingbird species

Among 330 classified species there are both miniature and quite "solid" birds.

The largest is considered the Patagona gigas, a gigantic hummingbird that lives in many regions of South America, often flying to a height of 4-5 thousand meters. It has a straight, elongated beak, a fork-like tail and a record length for a hummingbird - 21.6 cm.

The smallest in the family, the bee hummingbird, lives exclusively in Cuba... The upper plumage of males is dominated by blue, in females - green. An adult bird does not grow more than 5.7 cm and weighs 1.6 g.

The eagle-billed hummingbird, inhabiting Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, is notable for its beak curved downward (almost 90 °).

It is interesting!Selasphorus rufus, ocher hummingbird, also known as red selasphorus, became famous for being the only hummingbird that flew into Russia. In the summer of 1976, a red-headed selasphorus visited Ratmanov Island, and eyewitnesses claimed that they saw hummingbirds in Chukotka and Wrangel Island.

North America (from western California to southern Alaska) is considered to be a habitual habitat. For the winter, the buffy hummingbird flies to Mexico. The bird has a thin, awl-like beak and a short length (8-8.5 cm).

Another curious representative of the family has the longest (against the background of the body) beak: 9-11 cm with a bird length of 17-23 cm. The bird with a predominant dark green plumage received the telling name "sword-beak".

Wildlife

Hummingbirds prefer to spend their days among fragrant flowers, choosing, as a rule, warm tropical forests.

Habitat, habitats

The birthplace of all hummingbirds is the New World. Hummingbirds have invaded Central and South America, as well as southern regions of North America. Almost all hummingbird species are sedentary. Exceptions include several species, including the ruby-throated hummingbird, whose habitat extends to Canada and the Rocky Mountains.

Ascetic living conditions force this species with the onset of cold weather to go to Mexico, covering a distance of 4-5 thousand kilometers. On the way, the ruby-throated hummingbird picks up a speed that is decent for its build - about 80 km / h.

The range of certain species is limited to a local area. These species, called endemics, include, for example, the already known hummingbird-bee, which never flies out of Cuba.

Hummingbird lifestyle

As often happens in small animals, hummingbirds compensate for their compact size with a quarrelsome nature, love of life and hypertrophied mobility. They do not hesitate to attack larger birds, especially when it comes to protecting offspring.

Hummingbirds lead a solitary lifestyle, showing increased vigor in the morning and afternoon. With the onset of dusk, they fall into a short night hibernation.

It is interesting!Superfast metabolism requires constant saturation, which cannot be at night. To slow down the metabolism, the hummingbird falls asleep: at this time, the body temperature drops to 17-21 C °, and the pulse slows down. When the sun rises, the hibernation ends.

Contrary to popular belief, not all hummingbirds perform 50-100 strokes per second in flight: large hummingbirds are limited to 8-10 strokes.

The flight of a bird is somewhat reminiscent of the flight of a butterfly, but it certainly surpasses the latter in complexity and maneuverability. The hummingbird flies up and down, back and forth, to the sides, hovers motionless, and also starts and lands vertically.

When hovering, the bird's wings describe an eight in the air, which allows you to remain motionless, holding the hummingbird body strictly vertically. This distinguishes hummingbirds from other birds that can hang exclusively flat. The movements of the wings are so fleeting that their outlines blur: it seems that the hummingbird just froze in front of the flower.

Feeding, catching hummingbirds

Due to the accelerated metabolism, birds are forced to continuously feed themselves with food, which they are busy looking for day and night. The hummingbird is so insatiable that it eats twice as much in a day as it weighs.... You will never see a dining bird sitting on the ground or on a branch - the meal takes place exclusively on the fly.

It is interesting!Most of the hummingbird's diet is nectar and pollen from tropical plants. Different hummingbirds have their own gastronomic preferences: someone flies from flower to flower, and someone is able to feast on nectar from a single species of plants.

There is an assumption that the shape of the beak of various hummingbird species is also due to the structure of the flower cup.

To get the nectar, the bird has to lower the tongue into the neck of the flower at least 20 times per second. After touching the sweet substance, the curled tongue expands and curls again when pulled into the beak.

Nectar and pollen provide birds with plenty of carbohydrates, but cannot meet their protein needs. That is why they have to hunt small insects, which they catch right on the fly or tear them off the web.

Natural enemies of the bird

In nature, hummingbirds do not have many enemies. Birds are often hunted down by tarantula spiders and tree snakes, biding their time amidst abundant tropical greenery.

The list of natural enemies of hummingbirds can also include a person who destroys miniature birds for the sake of sparkling feathers. Plumage hunters have tried a lot to ensure that certain species of hummingbirds (especially those with a limited range) were reduced, approaching the line of complete extinction.