Fast facts:

* Hummingbirds'flight has been studied intensively from an aerodynamic perspective using wind tunnels and high-speed video cameras.

* The hummingbirds' hovering is similar to, but distinct from, that of hovering insects such as the hawk moths.

* The Giant Hummingbird's wings beat at 8-10 beats per second, the wings of medium-sised hummingbirds beat about 20-25 beats per second and the smallest can reach 100 beats per second during courtship displays.

* With the exception of insects, hummingbirds while in flight have the highest metabolism of all animals, a necessity in order to support the rapid beating of their wings.

Their heart rate can reach as high as 1,260 beats per minute, a rate once measured in a Blue-throated Hummingbird.

* The two halves of a hummingbird's bill have a pronounced overlap, with the lower half (mandible) fitting tightly inside the upper half (maxilla).

.*Hummingbirds are capable of slowing down their metabolism at night, or any other time food is not readily available. They enter a hibernation-like state known as torpor. During torpor, the heart rate and rate of breathing are both slowed dramatically (the heart rate to roughly 50-180 beats per minute), reducing the need for food.

* A migrating Ruby-throated Hummingbird can cross 800 km (500 mi) of the Gulf of Mexico on a non-stop flight. This hummingbird, like other birds preparing to migrate, stores up fat to serve as fuel, thereby augmenting its weight by as much as 100 percent and hence increasing the bird's potential flying time.

* Hummingbird-pollinated flowers also produce relatively weak nectar (averaging 25per cent sugars w/w) containing high concentrations of sucrose, whereas insect-pollinated flowers typically produce more concentrated nectars dominated by fructose and glucose.

*The longest recorded lifespan in the wild is that of a female Broad-tailed Hummingbird that was banded (ringed) as an adult at least one year old then recaptured 11 years later, making her at least 12 years old. Other longevity records for banded hummingbirds include an estimated minimum age of 10 years 1 month for a female Black-chinned similar in size to Broad-tailed, and at least 11 years 2 months for a much larger Buff-bellied Hummingbird.

*Though scientists theorize that hummingbirds originated in South America, where there is the greatest species diversity, possible ancestors of extant hummingbirds may have lived in parts of Europe to what is southern Russia today.

*Aztecs wore hummingbird talismans, the talismans being representations as well as actual hummingbird fetishes formed from parts of real hummingbirds: emblematic for their vigor, energy, and propensity to do work along with their sharp beaks that mimic instruments of weaponry, bloodletting, penetration, and intimacy.

*The Aztec god Huitzilopochtli is often depicted as a hummingbird.

*One of the Nazca Lines depicts a hummingbird.

Tiny in size but mighty in fame.Would you believe that these little birds which are classed among the smallest in the world are unique? They are the only feathered beauties that have the ability to fly backwards.They are not famous only for this. Hummingbirds can also hover in mid air by rapidly flapping their wings between 12 to 90 times per second, depending on the species. They can fly at speeds exceeding 15 m/s (54 km/h, 34 mi/h). Now don't you think they have great abilities despite being such tiny creatures? So, let's fly with these sweet feathered friends to learn more about them...

Named after the characteristic hum they make when they beat their wings rapidly, hummingbirds belong to the family Trochilidae. Most species measure in the 7.5-13 cm (3-5 in) range with the smallest species , the Bee Hummingbird. measuring about 5-cm. It is the smallest bird in the world.

There are between 325 and 340 species of hummingbird, divided into two subfamilies.They are the hermits (subfamily Phaethornithinae, 34 species in six genera), and the typical hummingbirds (subfamily Trochilinae, all the others). However, recent phylogenetic analyses suggest that this division is slightly inaccurate, and that there are nine major clades of hummingbirds: the topazes and jacobins, the hermits, the mangoes, the coquettes, the brilliants, the Giant Hummingbird (Patagona gigas), the mountain-gems, the bees, and the emeralds.. The topazes and jacobins combined have the oldest split with the rest of the hummingbirds. The hummingbird family has the second most species of any bird family on Earth (after the tyrant flycatchers).

A majority of these birds have long and straight bills (or nearly so) .However the shape of the bill is adapted for specialised feeding in some species .For example the Thornbills have short, sharp bills adapted for feeding from flowers with short corollas and also for piercing the bases of longer ones. The Sicklebills' extremely curved bills which adapted to extracting nectar from the curved corollas of flowers in the family Gesneriaceae. The bill of the Fiery-tailed Awlbill has an upturned tip, as in the Avocets. The male Tooth-billed Hummingbird has barracuda-like spikes at the tip of its long, straight bill.Sword bill hummingbirds have very long bills which are rather unusual compared to the rest of the species. When hummingbirds feed on nectar, the bill is usually only opened slightly, allowing the tongue to dart out and into the interior of flowers.

Hummingbirds do not spend all day flying, as the energy cost would be prohibitive; the majority of their activity consists simply of sitting or perching. Hummingbirds feed in many small meals, consuming many small invertebrates and up to twelve times their own body weight in nectar each day. They spend an average of 10-15 per cent of their time feeding and 75-80 per cent sitting and digesting.

Like butterflies hummingbirds too love to drink the nectar, a sweet liquid inside certain flowers.And like bees, they are able to assess the amount of sugar in the nectar they eat; they reject flower types that produce nectar that is less than 10 per cent sugar and prefer those whose sugar content is stronger. However ,as nectar is a poor source of nutrients, hummingbirds meet their needs for protein, amino acids, vitamins and minerals by preying on insects and spiders.Did you know that these bird species are specialised nectarivores and that they are are tied to the ornithophilous flowers they feed upon? A fascinating fact researchers have discovered is that many plants pollinated by hummingbirds produce flowers in shades of red, orange, and bright pink. However, this does not mean that the birds drink nectar only from flowers of these colours. They take nectar from flowers of many colours. Even though hummingbirds can see wavelengths into the near-ultraviolet, their flowers do not reflect these wavelengths as many insect-pollinated flowers do. According to researchers this narrow colour spectrum may render hummingbird-pollinated flowers relatively unnoticable to most insects, thereby reducing the possibility of the nectar being robbed by the insects.

When it comes to nesting, most species build a cup-shaped nest on the branch of a tree or shrub, though a few tropical species normally attach their nests to leaves. The nest varies in size relative to species, from smaller than half of a walnut shell to several centimetres in diameter. In many hummingbird species, spider silk is used to bind the nest material together and secure the structure to its support. The unique properties of silk allow the nest to expand with the growing young. Two white eggs are laid, which, despite being the smallest of all bird eggs, are in fact large relative to the hummingbird's adult size.

The incubation period is 14 to 23 days, depending not only on the species but also on the ambient temperature and the mother bird's attentiveness to the nest. The nestlings on small arthropods and nectar by the mother byinserting her bill into the open mouth of a nestling and regurgitating the food into its crop. Male hummingbirds do not take part in building of nests or feeding the young .

Many of the hummingbird species have bright plumage with exotic colouration. In many species, the colouring does not come from pigmentation in the feather structure, but instead from prism-like cells within the top layers of the feathers. When light hits these cells, it is split into wavelengths that reflect to the observer in varying degrees of intensity. The hummingbird wing structure acts as a diffraction grating. The result is that, merely by shifting position, a muted-looking bird will suddenly become fiery red or vivid green.] However, not all hummingbird colours are due to the prism feather structure. The rusty browns of Allen's and Rufous Hummingbirds come from pigmentation. Iridescent hummingbird colors actually result from a combination of refraction and pigmentation, since the diffraction structures themselves are made of melanin, a pigment.Hummingbirds have long lifespans for organisms with such rapid metabolisms. Though many die during their first year of life, especially in the vulnerable period between hatching and leaving the nest (fledging), those that survive may live a decade or more. Among the better-known North American species, the average lifespan is 3 to 5 years.

A hummingbird's only natural habitat (the place where they live) is in the Americas. Their range is as far north as Alaska and as far south as Chile. Most hummingbirds live in South America.

There are over three hundred (300) types or species of hummingbirds making hummingbirds the second largest species of bird in the Western Hemisphere. Ecuador has the largest number of types or species of hummingbirds. There are more than 50 types or species of hummingbirds that breed in Mexico, more than 15 types or species of hummingbirds that breed in the United States, and more than 3 types or species of hummingbirds that breed in Canada.

Many hummingbirds love the habitat of wooded and forested areas that have lots of flowers and well as in meadows and grasslands. There are also plenty of hummingbirds living quite well in large cities, cool areas, warm areas, places that get snow, and desert environments. Most hummingbirds like the habitat of Central and South America and will stay here all year long. A few of them will travel north every year.

Courtesy: Internet