About Hummingbirds

• 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 2.25" long.
  • Hummingbirds have the largest known relative heart size of all birds. Their heart represents 2.4% 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 each 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, 21 times a second!
  • A resting hummingbird takes 250 breaths per minutes, over 4 times a second!
• 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% 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 up to 500 miles non-stop across the Gulf of Mexico on their migration. Before starting, they increase their body weight by 50%, 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 daytime 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 the air or off leaves.
  • Hummingbirds can live up to 12 years although many live only 3 to 5 years.

Source: The Hummingbird Book by Donald and Lillian Stokes.

ISBN 0-316-81715-5