Because they use up so much energy to fuel wing flapping up to 80 flaps a second, they need to eat every 20 minutes. This poor bird was tiring quickly. He finally flew out the door and crash landed on our front lawn.
We picked up the bird in a cloth and hand fed him some sugar water.
After a few minutes of refueling, the hummingbird flew away. What an exciting morning! How often does someone get to hold a hummingbird?
Hummingbird Facts and Information
The rapid beating of the hummingbirds wings (60 to 80 beats per second) makes the distinctive humming sound from which they get their name.
The hummingbird is the smallest bird and also the smallest of all animals that have a backbone.
They have no sense of smell.
Because they can rotate their wings in a circle, they are the only bird that can fly forwards, backwards, up, down ,sideways and hover in mid air.
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 1/15th of its normal rate.
During migration, some hummingbirds make a non-stop 500 mile flight over the Gulf of Mexico.
During courtship dives they can reach speeds up to 60 miles per hour and can average speeds of 20 to 30 miles per hour.
They are the second largest family of birds with 343 species.
They can beat their wings up to 80 times a second during normal flight and up to 200 times per second during a courtship dive.
Their heart rate can reach up to 1,260 beats per minute.
Percentage wise, the hummingbird has the largest brain of all birds (4.2% of its total body weight).
Hummingbirds have very weak feet and use them mainly just for perching
There is your class on hummingbirds. By the way, the gecko is still alive. Back to school!
Until I blog again
2 comments:
Can you let me know if this comes through?
This confuses me! Guess I'll need to give you a call.
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