★ The rapid beating of the hummingbirds wings (60 to 80 beats per second) makes the distinctive humming sound from which they get their name.
★ Inspite of being the lightest bird on planet (0.2 oz.) it is also the only bird capable of flying backwards
★ The hummingbird is also the smallest bird and also the smallest of all animals that have a backbone.
★ Hummingbirds are the second largest family of birds with 343 species.
★ A hummingbird has no sense of smell
★ Because the 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.
★ The normal resting heartbeat of a hummingbird is 480 beats per minute, this number can go up to 1,260 per minute when it is excited.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.
★ Hummingbirds cannot walk or hop, though their feet can be used to scoot sideways while they are perched.
★ Hummingbirds have 1,000-1,500 feathers, the fewest number of feathers of any bird species in the world.
★ Hummingbirds can beat their wings up to 80 times a second during normal flight and up to 200 times per second during a courtship dive.
★ Hummingbirds can flash their bright colors, as well as hide them when needed.This allows hummingbirds to flash colors or hide them which is useful for males who want to impress females or threaten other males.
★ The bright radiant color on hummingbirds comes from iridescent coloring like on a soap bubble or prism
★ An average hummingbird’s heart rate is more than 1,200 beats per minute.
★ At rest, a hummingbird takes an average of 250 breaths per minute.
★ The rufous hummingbird has the longest migration of any hummingbird species with a distance of more than 3,000 miles from the bird’s nesting grounds in Alaska and Canada to its winter habitat in Mexico.
A hummingbird's brain is 4.2% of its body weight, the largest proportion in the bird kingdom.
★ Hummingbirds are very smart and they can remember every flower they have been to, and how long it will take a flower to refill.
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