6 Fun Facts about Hummingbirds!
6 Fun Facts about Hummingbirds 🐦
How much do you know about our smallest flying friends? Here's some amazing hummingbird facts:
They are the smallest migrating birds in the world. The smallest, the Bee Hummingbird (found in Cuba), is just 2 inches long and weighs less than a dime! The hummingbird with the longest migration is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which migrates 3,000 miles from Central America to North America every year!
They can beat their wings incredibly fast, up to 80 times per second. That's 4,800 beats per minute!
Because hummingbirds are so small and so active, they have the highest metabolism of any bird species. They need to eat every 10-15 minutes, and will visit up to 1,000 flowers a day. In one day, they will eat up to 8 times their body weight in nectar - that's the equivalent of a 150 pound human eating 1,200 pouds of food per day!
They have no sense of smell. Instead, they're attracted by colors, especially the color red! In fact, it's believed that many flowers have adapted to be more red to attract hummingbirds for pollination.
They have an amazing memory, and know where to find food based on remembering every flower they've visited, knowing when they'll bloom, and how long it will take for the flower to refill with nectar.
And yes, not only are they the only bird that can fly backwards, but they can also hover, fly sideways, and even fly upside down! Talk about some trick flying!
Who knew that our smallest birds could be so amazing!