![]() They take up 25 percent of its entire body weight, a higher percentage than any other bird species. ![]() To do all that flapping they have evolved an enlarged heart for greater pumping and huge pecs that even Arnold Schwarzenegger would be proud of. Some would call this extreme, but to reduce weight further they have removed some non-essential organs, including the bladder, gall bladder, a right ovary in the females, and the penis in the males. ![]() They also have fewer muscles and ligaments (instead they have fused bones in their backs and pelvis to maintain support). Most of their bones are porous, and some even hollow, in the case of their legs and wings. They additionally have several weight-reducing features. Moves any Apache helicopter pilot would be proud of! Their agility is down to a combination of their small size and some unique physiological adaptations. They have evolved smaller feet to reduce aerodynamic drag when flying, but this comes at a cost – their feet are so weak they can’t walk or hop, just perch or slightly scoot sidewards. They can also hover mid-air, fly sideways, and even upside down. Hummingbirds are the only birds in the world that can fly both forwards and backward. Poor Male Bird!Īnd it’s not just the high speeds that are impressive. Blurringly fast to human eyes! These nose dives subject them to over 10Gs of force – enough to cause fighter pilots to blackout! 2. They flap their wings typically around 70 times per second, allowing them to fly at a speed of around 30 mph (almost 50 kph), but they have been known to flap them as high as 200 times per second when performing a courtship dive at speeds up to 60 mph (almost 100 kph). They are known as hummingbirds, not because of their ability to give tuneful renditions of songs while keeping their lips closed (although, I like to think it is), but because of the humming sound created by their beating wings, which flap at high frequencies audible to humans. Here is a list of our favorite, fun and fascinating facts about hummingbirds. For something so small, there is certainly an incredible amount of interesting facts about them. Hummingbirds ( Trochilidae) are abundant in South America, the misty slopes of the Andes Mountains and enchanting swathes of Amazon Rainforest abuzz with some 140 different hummingbirds species. These nectar-loving Neotropical birds barely rest to let avid birdwatchers catch a glimpse, but they still manage to bewitch onlookers with their fluttering and fleeting presence, a blur of brilliant colors, bravado and aerial agility.įrom the White-booted racket-tail ( Ocreatus underwoodii) with its Ugg-like booties to the Marvelous spatuletail ( Loddigesia mirabilis) with its remarkable tail reminiscent of a game of table tennis with violet-blue ping-pong paddles, the incredible biodiversity and bedazzling beauty of hummingbirds really is something to behold.
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