Today, science knows about five hundred species of these wonderful birds. It's hard to believe, but the smallest bird in the world does not exceed the size of a bumblebee! True, there are also large individuals: they are the size of a swallow.
What do they eat?
Please note that at the end of the hummingbird’s head is not an ordinary bird's beak, but something in the form of an elongated proboscis.
The fact is that the smallest bird in the world eats floral nectar! And the proboscis beak helps her a lot in this. The bird on the fly, not sitting on the plant, sucks the nectar from the flower with its tubular tongue, able to protrude from the long beak for some distance. It should be noted that the sucked nectar does not stay in the stomach, it immediately passes into the intestine. This is a very high-calorie food for hummingbirds. In addition to flower nectar, hummingbirds menu is composed of small insects that live in the flowers and on the leaves of trees. Interestingly, these birds eat twice as much their own weight per day!
Fast flight
The smallest bird in the world flies at such a speed that it is simply impossible to trace its flight with the naked eye. They fly their wings so fast in flight that only shadows from their movement are visible! Imagine, in one second they make up to 80 wing flaps at a speed of 90 kilometers per hour! Flying is fast, stops are instant, turns are cutting. In this case, the position of the body of fast-flying birds changes instantly!
Living rainbow
The color of this bird is not determined by the color of its plumage.
A sunbeam plays on its feathers: depending on its fall, in different places of the body, as it were, colored overflows of all precious stones are visible. Some scientists claim that the human eye is not able to catch all the shades of this truly wonderful plumage. Even in the museum, a small
hummingbird bird, presented as a scarecrow, shimmers like a real rainbow!
Work days
Interestingly, the smallest bird in the world never sits on the ground, "hanging" at night, like bats mammals (bats) - "upside down." Hummingbirds do not fall asleep in the ordinary sense of the word. They fall into the so-called suspended animation: their heart slows down, breathing slows down, the temperature of the body becomes two times lower ... But only morning comes, and the sun begins to warm, as hummingbirds "come to life" and begin to work, as they say, in an everyday rhythm: they fly from flower to flower in search of nectar, chasing midges, etc.
If the hummingbird has chicks, then with the help of its miraculous proboscis, it feeds with flower nectar, both them and herself.
Small but brave
Hummingbirds are pretty bold birds. They bravely defend their nests and chicks, as well as eggs, which, incidentally, are as small as a pea, and can fearlessly attack the enemy. There were cases when a small bird with a powerful blow to the eye of a tree snake threw it to the ground!
Unfortunately, hummingbirds are not found in Russia. But we have our own feathered baby. The smallest bird in Russia is a yellow-headed king, but this is a completely different story, friends ...