| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
| Hummingbirds | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ruby-throated Hummingbird | ||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| Genera | ||||||||||
| Many, see text. |
Hummingbirds are attracted to many flowering plants— shrimp plants, fuchsias, many penstemons, etc.—especially those with red flowers. Hummingbirds feed on the nectar of these plants. They are important pollinators, especially of deep-throated flowers. Most species also eat insects.
Male hummingbirds are usually brightly coloured, females duller. The males take no part in nesting. The nest is usually a neat cup in a tree. Two white eggs are laid, which are quite small, but large relative to the bird's size. Incubation is typically 14-19 days.
The Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) is, at 1.8 grams, the smallest bird in the world. A typical North American hummingbird, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) weighs approximately 3 grams and has a length of 7.6 cm (3 in).
Hummingbirds have the highest metabolismMetabolism in the most general sense, is the ingestion and breakdown of complex compounds, coupled with the liberation of energy, and the consequent generation of waste products. It is major process of living organisms, and because this process can happen of all animals, a necessity in order to support the rapid beating of their wings. Their heartbeat can reach 500 beats per minute! They also typically consume more than their own weight in food each day, and to do that, they have to visit hundreds of flowers every day. But at any given moment, they're hours away from starving. Fortunately, they are capable of slowing down their metabolism at night, or any other time food is not readily availible. They enter a hibernation-like state known as torporTorpor is a state of regulated hypothermia in an endotherm lasting just a few hours. Animals that go through torpor include small birds like hummingbirds and some small mammals such as bats. During the active part of their day these animals maintain norma. During torpor, the heartrate and rate of breathing are both slowed dramatically, reducing their need for food.
Hummingbirds are only found in the Americas, from southern CanadaCanada historically the Dominion of Canada is the second-largest, and northernmost, country in the world. It is a decentralized federation of 10 provinces and 3 territories, governed as a constitutional monarchy, and formed in 1867 through an act of Confe and AlaskaOn January 3, 1959, Alaska was admitted to the United States as the 49th state. The population of the state is 626,932, as of 2000. The name "Alaska" is most likely derived from the Aleut word for "great country" or "mainland. The natives called it "Alyes to Tierra del FuegoTierra del Fuego ( Spanish: land of fire is an archipelago at the southernmost tip of South America. In 1881 it was divided between Argentina and Chile. The archipelago consists of a main island ( Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, often called Tierra del F, including the West Indies. The Black-chinned Hummingbird is the most common species in the western United States and Canada. Only the Ruby-throated Hummingbird breeds in eastern North America, but occasional members of other hummingbird species ("accidentals" in birding jargon) are seen in the east of North America, sometimes as vagrants from Cuba or the Bahamas.
Hummingbirds of the U.S. and Canada generally migrate to warmer climates, though some remain in the warmest coastal regions. In addition, there is an increasing trend for Rufous Hummingbirds to migrate east to winter in the eastern United States, rather than south to Central America, this trend being the result of increased survival with the provision of artificial feeders in gardens. In the past, individuals that migrated east would usually die, but now they survive, and their tendency to migrate east is inherited by their offspring. Provided sufficient food and shelter is available, they are surprisingly hardy, able to tolerate temperatures down to at least -20°C.