Hummingbird -Size Doesn’t Matters

                                                 classification -:

Kingdom:       Animalia                                             Phylum:           Chordata

Order:           Apodiformes                                     Family:         Trochilidae

The Hummingbird, Their name comes from the fact that they flap their wings so fast almost 80 times per second that they make a humming noise. A hummingbird’s maximum forward flight speed is 30 miles per hour. These birds can reach up to 60 miles per hour in a dive, and hummingbirds have many adaptations for unique flight. a hummingbird takes an average of 250 breaths per minute. Their breathing pace will increase when they are in flight.

 Hummingbirds include the smallest birds in the world, but that’s not it, also known as one of most numbers of group birds, it is difficult to estimate population numbers since there are many different species spanning a large geographic area. There are more than 325 unique hummingbird species in the world. Only eight species regularly breed in the United States, the other species of the hummingbirds are primarily tropical species and do not regularly migrate. 

They are found in Central and South America as well as throughout the Caribbean.Like other birds, hummingbirds communicate via visual displays. Hummingbirds are very territorial and have been observed chasing each other and even larger birds such as hawks away from their territories.

During evolution, hummingbirds have adapted to the navigational needs of visual processing while in rapid flight or hovering by development of an exceptionally dense array of retinal neurons allowing for increased spatial resolution in the lateral and frontal visual fields.

Morphological studies showed that neuronal hypertrophy, relatively the largest in any bird, exists in a brain region called the pretectal nucleus lentiformis mesencephali (or nucleus of the optic tract in mammals) responsible for refining dynamic visual processing while hovering and during rapid flight, The enlargement of this brain region responsible for visual processing indicates enhanced ability for perception and processing of fast-moving visual stimuli which hummingbirds encounter during rapid forward flight, insect foraging, competitive interactions, and high-speed courtship.

Hummingbirds primarily eat flower nectar, tree sap, insects and pollen. The hummingbird’s fast breathing rate, fast heartbeat and high body temperature require that they eat often. They also require an enormous amount of food each day. Hummingbirds have a long tongue which they use to lick their food at a rate of up to 13 licks per second.