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RUFOUS IN FLIGHT |
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RUFOUS |
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| GREEN VIOLETEAR |
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| STREAMERTAIL |
Hummingbirds are
regarded as the gems of the Bird world. They are so breathtaking with their
shining green, blue and red feather. They were always thought of as birds of
the rainforest. However, they can be found in quite wide areas of North and
South America.
They are the most
dazzling birds and named accordingly; rainbow-bearded thornbill, firethroated
metaltail, emerald-bellied puffleg, golden-bellied starfrontlet and shining sunbeam.
Besides their bright coloured plumage they behave like large insects and
evolved to extra-ordinary powers of flight in the process.
Their closed cousin
is the swift. Both birds belonging to the family of Apodiformes which means no
feet. Of course, they have feet but very small ones and are tucked away when
flying.
Hummingbirds belong
to the family Trochilidae and it has 330 species. Their sizes differ from the
giant hummingbird of the Andes Mountains which has a length of 20cm, to
the tiny bee hummingbird of Cuba. The smallest is 57mm long and weighs 1.6g.
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| BEE HUMMINGBIRD THE PENCIL GIVES AN IDEA OF THE SIZE |
Their diet is
nectar which is a high-energy food and the vital protein comes from the insects
they eat. To reach the various depths of flowers to get to the nectar they
developed a wide range of bill shapes and sizes.
The sword-billed
hummingbird has a bill as long as his body. It keeps its bill upright mostly to
take the strain and to keep the balance. This bill is perfect to reach deep
into the flowers such as Datura, Passiflora, and fuchsia. When it put its bill
right into the flower, it still has to stick out its tongue to get the nectar.
No other birds can feed on those flowers
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| SICKLEBILLS |
The sicklebills is
right the opposite. The short sharp curved bill is perfect to reach the nectar
in the helicona flower. It does not hover but sit on the edge of the flower
with its powerful feet.
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| THORNBILL |
The thornbill lives
on the high alpine plateaux of the Andes known as paramos. They use their short
sharp bill to feed on the tiny florets of composite flower Espeletia. Sometime
the bird pierces it from behind to get the nectar. The general feeder
uses their needle-like bills to feed on a wide variety of flowers. They also
puncture holes to get the nectar. The flowers counteract with packing their
flowers tight together to enable only those hummingbirds with the right shaped
bill. While they feed, they pollinate the flowers at the same time. The birds also
have a tongue like a tube and draw the nectar up like drinking from a straw
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They prefer to feed
on red flowers and the scientists believe that birds can see red and insects can’t.
Therefore, the birds know that they still can have a full feed from the flower.
They look small and
beautiful with their various colours but they are and can be very aggressive.
They guard trees which have their favourite flower and chase other birds away,
even larger one. That particular specie lives in a compact area. Other species
feed over a wide area but have a special route where they go from trees to
flowers and to shrubs.
Hummingbirds got
the name from the noise of their wings, when hovering. Smaller birds are
extremely fast while bigger birds flap their wings. It can have a wing
beat of up to 80 per second. The wings are kept straight and they sweep them
backwards and forwards in a shallow figure of eight. Therefore, it gets lift
both ways. Other birds can only fly on their forward stroke.
Surprisingly the birds can also fly backward with that unique system. Some even
can fly sideways. This capability comes from highly developed flight muscles
through the nourishing nectar. The birds have to have nectar amounting to half
its body weight.
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| HUMMINGBIRD'S NEST |
The bird makes a
small cup-shape nest put together with plant material, saliva and spiderweb.
They have two eggs and the young are fed on insects and nectar. The female only
rear the young ones. The male displays an elaborated courtship.
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| SPATULETAIL |
One
hummingbird, the spatuletail, from North Peru, grows special feathers. It grows
two enormous long tail feathers which have a long exposed shaft and with a
small feathered area at the end. When it displays his flights his feather
strike one another and it sound like a whiplash.
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