Hummingbirds Are Heavenly

Hummingbirds Are Heavenly

I just absolutely love hummingbirds, They are so fascinating. They are the worlds smallest bird and only live in the Americas. Although they can see colors and are attracted by red, They have no sense of smell like other birds.
The most astonishing quality of hummingbirds is their ability to broadcast color. Hummingbirds radiate like hot coals in the sun. The color that reaches your eye is created by pigment, which absorbs some colors and rejects others. Like soap bubbles, hummingbird's color comes from iridescence, not pigment. It winks on and off, So it’s not your imagination that a certain hummingbird is changing colors. This allows hummingbirds to flash colors or hide them which is useful for males who want to impress females or threaten other males.

Hummingbirds feed through a long, tube-like tongue that darts into the flowers for nectar. The tongue, shaped like a "W", uses capillary action to absorb the nectar. The tongue's brushy tip also traps insects on their own quest for nectar. For protein, they will clean off a spiders web, eating the captured insects and then the spider itself. Now that’s resourceful.
Hummingbirds have to eat constantly to fuel themselves and they burn off their food very fast. They have the fastest wing beats of any bird and their hearts beat up to 1,260 beats per minute. A Hummingbird's flight speed can average 25-30 mph, and can dive up to 60 mph. In their non stop quest for fuel, Hummingbirds may visit 1,000 flowers per day, and hummingbird feeders.
They do have an interesting trait that only hummingbirds have in which they go into topor- a state in which their metabolic rate is only one- fifteenth that of normal sleep. They do this when they cannot get enough food mostly at night. It does not take a hummingbird long to starve to death. I often hear of hummingbirds being trapped in a garage for only a few hours and they unfortunately do not survive because they can’t feed.
Hummingbirds can fly long distances Many ruby-throats make a 2,000 mile journey between Canada and Panama. The trip includes a non-stop, 500 mile flight over the Gulf of Mexico. Now that’s a long way.

Hummingbirds are very territorial and will defend their feeders to no end. The mail will attract his preferred mate with his coloring and a strange dance in which he flies in a U shape swerve back and forth several times. They only mate once a season, laying 2 or 3 White eggs the size of jellybeans and the female raises the young herself. They do not stay with the same mate from season to season. However they will return to the same area and feeders each year
Hummingbirds do not sing. Most of them manage no more than a few chirps, squeaks and clicking noises, though they deliver them dramatically with quick turns of the head. Hummingbirds do make distinctive "zinging" noises with their wings however and do not hesitate to fly close to humans to check them out. My humming birds just love a birdhouse that I have hanging on the porch it is decorated with red flowers, They check it out regularly and it’s not unusual for my husband to be checked out when he wears his red ball cap or red tank top.

There are over 340 species of hummingbirds, They are every color imaginable even albino. To me they are very tiny wonders of nature, and have my admiration. I enjoy watching them and putting out many feeders for their never ending appetites. Sitting in the garden swing, watching the hummingbirds is a very intertaing way to relax and enjoy this little captivating cutie while he zips about going about his business.

birdlady