Is the hummingbird the smallest bird known in the world?

Hummingbird is the smallest bird known in the world. They belong to swift and hummingbird. Hummingbirds are a general term for about 600 species of these animals. Hummingbirds are very small and can hover in the air by flapping their wings quickly, about 15 to 80 times per second. Its speed depends on the size of the hummingbird. Hummingbirds get their name from the hum of flapping wings. Hummingbird is the only bird in the world that can fly backwards. They can not only fly backwards, but also fly left and right, and even hover in the air.

hummingbird

When flying, hummingbirds' wings vibrate very fast, about 50 times per second. When they fly in the air for four or five kilometers, the speed can reach 50 kilometers per hour, so it is difficult for people to see them. The most surprising thing is that the hummingbird's heartbeat reaches more than 600 beats per minute. In addition, some hummingbirds often live in the same place, so they also have the habit of migration.

The purple-eared hummingbird and several other hummingbirds have different lifestyles from most hummingbirds. They like to live in pairs and feed their little hummingbirds together. Most kinds of males defend the occupied area by flying (occupied area is where they show off to passing females). Male birds often hover in front of female birds, allowing sunlight to reflect the color of their necks. Male birds in occupied areas chase hummingbirds of the same species or different species, and they will also violently attack large birds, such as crows and eagles, and even people. Most hummingbirds, especially the smaller species, not only hum with their mouths. It will also make various sounds such as buzzing and hissing with its tail feathers in flight.

Hummingbirds have the most beautiful posture and the most gorgeous colors of all animals. Hummingbirds, the treasures of nature, can't even be compared with exquisite carvings and jade carvings. Hummingbird is also the smallest bird in the world. It has another eye. Hummingbird is a masterpiece of nature: light, swift, agile, elegant and gorgeous feathers-this little darling has everything. It shines like emeralds, rubies and topaz. Busy hummingbirds shuttle through the flowers and feed on nectar, but they have the ability to prevent the dust on the ground from staining their clothes.

To the amazement of mankind, the smallest hummingbird is even smaller than shrimp, only about 2 grams, not as thick as bumblebee, and the egg the size of pea is only about 0.2 grams. Its beak is like a fine needle and its tongue is like a thin thread. Its eyes are like two flashing black spots; The feathers on its wings are very thin and seem to be transparent; Its feet are short and small, and it is not easy to be noticed; It is rarely used enough and only stops at night; It keeps flying, fast and buzzing. So when it stays in the air, its wings flap very fast, so not only does it look the same shape, but it looks like a helicopter when it hovers in the air. So if someone sees it motionless in front of a flower, but suddenly it flies like an arrow to another flower, they don't have to be surprised by their behavior. Because of their petite but agile bodies, many birds much older than them are helpless. An angry hummingbird has been seen chasing a bird more than ten times its size and pecking it away. There are sometimes fierce fights between hummingbirds of the same kind.

Generally, the feathers of hummingbirds are mainly blue or green, but also purple, red or yellow. Their feathers will gradually fade from top to bottom, and some males have crests or slender tail feathers. Generally speaking, the body feathers of female birds are dimmer than those of male birds.

Hummingbirds live in a vast environment, ranging from the Andes at an altitude of 4000 meters to the tropical rain forest of the Amazon River. Hummingbirds can be seen even in dry scrub forests and wet swamps.

Hummingbirds have only been seen in the United States, from southern Canada and Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, including the West Indies. The most common hummingbird species in the United States and western Canada is the black-headed northern hummingbird. Only red-throated northern hummingbirds breed in eastern North America, but individual members of other kinds of hummingbirds can also be seen in eastern North America. They may be birds from Cuba or the Bahamas.

There are no hummingbirds in China. The rumors about hummingbirds are actually some large moths that are mistaken for hummingbirds when they feed on nectar, such as hummingbirds and moths. In the herbarium of the School of Life Sciences of Beijing Normal University, there is a hummingbird specimen, which was brought to Fu Jen Catholic University by an American missionary in the early 20th century and then introduced to Normal University. All the specimens are fake. Although it has a history of nearly a hundred years in Chenfang, it can be seen from the luster of its feathers that the specimen is well preserved.

Because hummingbirds flap their wings very fast, their metabolism is also quite fast. Their heart rate can reach 500 beats per minute! Hummingbirds consume far more food than their weight every day. In order to get a lot of food, they must eat hundreds of flowers every day. Sometimes hummingbirds have to endure hunger for hours. Sometimes in order to adapt to this situation, they have to deliberately slow down their metabolism at night or when food is not easy to get. They will put themselves into a hibernation-like "dormant" period, during which they will reduce their heart rate and breathing frequency, thus reducing their food consumption and demand.

For their nests, females usually nest alone, and males do not participate in nesting. Hummingbird's nest is a cup-shaped fabric, which is usually hung on branches, caves, rock surfaces or large leaves. Hummingbirds' eggs are white. They lay two very small eggs at a time. The smallest eggs are only the size of beans, each weighing only 0.5 grams. Then it may take them 15~ 19 days to hatch the baby.

The flying speed of hummingbirds is amazing, generally reaching 90 kilometers per hour, and even reaching 100 kilometers per hour when diving.

Hummingbirds with brains like rice grains have such amazing memories. Researchers in Britain and Canada have found that hummingbirds can remember not only the kind of food they just ate, but also when they ate it, so hummingbirds can eat something they haven't eaten at will to increase freshness. It is reported that hummingbirds seem to be thin. It is reported that hummingbirds in nature have their own sphere of influence, because they can not only clearly remember which flowers they visited, but also judge the approximate time when they visited those flowers, and then look for their food again according to the secretion law of those plants. In this way, when hummingbirds go out again, they can stop wasting time on plants whose nectar has been hollowed out by themselves. People used to think that only humans have the ability to judge, but now they know that some birds can also have this amazing memory.

Canadian hummingbirds are migratory hummingbirds. They fly from the cold Rocky Mountains to the warm Mexican region for the winter every year, and next spring they will return to the Rocky Mountains not far from Wan Li to breed their offspring. Scientists therefore speculate that hummingbirds have amazing memories because they are so small that it takes a long time to travel long distances year after year, so they can't spend precious time looking for food. According to research, hummingbirds can master the law of honey secretion of about 8 different flowers.

There is little research data about hummingbirds' life span, and most experts believe that the average life span of hummingbirds is 3-4 years. Under artificial propagation, the life span of hummingbirds can reach 10 years, while the life span of blue-breasted hummingbirds recorded in the field is only 7-8 years.

Because there are many kinds of hummingbirds, there are about 3 10 kinds of hummingbirds in the world, so it seems inaccurate to say that hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world. They are distributed from Alaska in North America to strait of magellan in South America, and many islands in the middle. However, different kinds of hummingbirds have great differences in body shape. The largest hummingbird is 2 1.5 cm long. It seems that hummingbird is not the smallest bird in the world. The hummingbird produced in Cuba is only 5.6 cm long, of which the beak and tail account for about half, and the weight is only about 2 grams, which is about the size of a bee. This hummingbird is the smallest bird in the world, and its egg is also the smallest bird's egg in the world, not much bigger than a full stop. Hummingbirds' feathers are mostly bright and metallic. Hummingbirds can fly upside down, take off and land vertically, and their wings vibrate very fast, up to 50 ~ 70 times per second, so they are also affectionately called "god birds", "comets" and "forest goddesses" by human beings.