Hummingbird Facts - Stuff That I Didn't Know UPDATED

[OldGuy43]

It all started with me wondering, "Do hummingbirds migrate as small and delicate as they are?" The answer with a few exceptions, as I should have deduced is yes. After all, butterflies migrate up to 2500 miles.

Now onto some of the fascinating stuff I learned while researching:

1. Hummingbirds are found only in the Americas.

2. Did you know that nectar is not the principle food of hummingbirds? It's just the fuel that allows them to catch their major food source, insects. Hummingbirds are essentially carnivores.

3. During migration, some hummingbirds make a non-stop 500 mile flight over the Gulf of Mexico.

4. Some flowers have co-evolved with the hummingbird. Their color renders them invisible to all other pollinators insuring the hummingbird a source of nectar.

5. Ounce-for-ounce hummingbirds have the largest brain of all birds. (4.6% of its total body weight.)

6. A hummingbird can reach up to 60 mph (96.5 kph) in a dive.

7. Hummingbirds live to be about 10 years old if they make it through the first year.

8. Hummingbirds can fly in all directions because they can rotate their wings.

9. A hummingbird supports 75% of its weight on the down stroke of it's wing. The remainder is supported on the upstroke.

10. During times of low food availability the hummingbird can enter a sort of hibernation reducing its metabolism to about 1/15th normal.

I just found this stuff fascinating. Hope someone else did.

 

[Nyboy]

That was very interesting thank you. I have a whole new respect for the little birds.

 

[hoodat]

Here in San Diego we're fortunate to have the only year round hummingbird, the Annas Hummingbird. We get rubythroats in the Summer but they migrate out in Winter. Actually late Winter through early Spring is the best time of year for our native hummingbirds. During and right after our rainy season is when the wildflowers bloom here.

 

[so lucky]

Number 10 on your list must be what they do when they sleep in cold weather. I have seen it called "torpor" and it takes them a while to come out of it when the wake up. Don't know for sure if you are referring to the same thing, but it kind of sounds like it. The more you learn about these little guys, the more amazing they are.

 

[NwMtGardener]

I had no idea they ate bugs. How in the world do they catch them with those silly little beaks they have?!?

 

[Carol Dee]

I love Hummers and have been lucky to have them visit my flowers and feeders each summer. They really are AMAZING creatures. NwMtGardener, those silly looking beaks can open pretty wide, and grasp like tweezers. Cool huh.

 

[thistlebloom]

We love our hummers too and look forward to their return each spring.
Sometimes we talk and laugh around the dinner table about what prompts them to leave their tropical home and fly all this way to nest and raise their young. It can be pretty dismal still when they arrive.

I don't understand it but I sure do appreciate it!

 

[Smart Red]

The ruby-throated hummer is the only humming bird that makes its summer home here in south-est, central-est Wisconsin. Three years ago, however, a hummer native to southern Florida was found in a nearby city as the cool weather of fall was approaching. I don't remember its name, but it was far more colorful than the ruby-throat.

Bird watchers from nearby states came to see the bird and up their lifetime birding list. Amid all the hoo-doo, the bird was captured and taken to the butterfly exhibit in the Chicago Museum of Natural History to keep it healthy and safe until it could hop a ride back to Florida.

It was generally thought that the hummer had been brought to Wisconsin on a southern storm sometime during the summer.

Love, Smart Red

 

[so lucky]

Did you get to see it, Smart Red? That is very exciting. I'm glad they were able to catch it and protect it.

 

[Southern Gardener]

I had no idea hummers ate bugs! We had a huge number of them just before summer ended - I've never seen so many hummers at one time.