Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Who Knew?

I had my first hummingbird citing of the year today!  I'm very excited because I have a hummingbird feeder outside my kitchen window and the birds keep me entertained while I'm doing the dishes.  I went online to find out what the sugar/water ratio was for their feed and found some interesting facts.  This info is compliments of http://howtoenjoyhummingbirds.com/

Interesting facts about hummingbirds:

bullet the hummingbird is the smallest bird and also the smallest of all animals that have a backbone.
bulleta hummingbird has no sense of smell
bullet because a hummingbird can rotate its wings in a circle, they are the only bird that can fly forwards, backwards, up, down ,sideways and  hover in mid air.
bullet to conserve energy while they sleep or when food is scarce, they can go into a hibernation-like state (torpor) where their metabolic rate is slowed to !/15th of its normal rate.
bullet during migration, some hummingbirds make a non-stop 500 mile flight over the Gulf of Mexico.
bullet during courtship dives a hummingbird can reach speeds up to 60 miles per hour and can average speeds of 20 to 30 miles per hour.
bullethummingbirds are the second largest family of birds with 343 species.
bullethummingbirds can beat their wings up to 80 times a second during normal flight and up to 200 times per second during a courtship dive.
bullet a hummingbird has a heart rate that can reach up to 1,260 beats per minute.
bullet percentage wise, the hummingbird has the largest brain of all birds (4.2% of its total body weight).
bullet hummingbirds have very weak feet and use them mainly just for perching.     

2 comments:

  1. I didn't know you were doing a research paper NOR did I know that humming birds were smart enough to "cite" ;]

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  2. they DO have the largest brain of all birds (percentage wise)....so I guess they are.

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