Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds
Male hummingbirds are the tiniest warm-blooded animals on the planet. Females need to be a tiny bit bigger to be able to produce eggs, to afford to share their body heat with the eggs while incubating, and to be able to share their food when feeding nestlings.
Hummingbirds are the smallest birds in North America, and they only exist in North America, measuring between two to five inches in length. They got their name because of the sound created by their wings, which sometimes sound like bees or other insects.
How do hummingbirds communicate?
Hummers communicate with one another primarily by chittering and other vocalizations and by flying toward one another aggressively, to chase each other away.
Chirping: The outer tail-feathers of male Anna's Hummingbird vibrate during display- dives and produce a loud chirp. When courting, the male ascends about 60feet before diving over an interested female at high speed (35 to 60mph) and producing a high-pitched sound. Experiments showed that the birds could not make the sound when missing their outer tail-feathers, and that those same feathers could produce the dive-sound in a wind tunnel. The bird can sing at the same frequency as the tail-feather chirp, but its weak syrinx (vocal cord) is not capable of the same volume.
Hummingbird flight
Hummingbirds are amazing to watch. They are able to fly up, down, forward, backward, sideways, and even upside down. In hovering flight, the wings move forward and backward--not up and down--and trace a figure-8, with lift being produced by both the forward AND backward strokes. Normal wing beat rate is about 80 times per second, up to 200 times per second in courtship flight. Hummingbirds are famous for their aerial display. Some displays are courtship displays; other displays are aggressive. They are able to perch and will do so at feeders regularly, but because they fly so much, their feet are poorly developed. They can barely walk at all. The
Male hummingbirds are the tiniest warm-blooded animals on the planet. Females need to be a tiny bit bigger to be able to produce eggs, to afford to share their body heat with the eggs while incubating, and to be able to share their food when feeding nestlings.
Hummingbirds are the smallest birds in North America, and they only exist in North America, measuring between two to five inches in length. They got their name because of the sound created by their wings, which sometimes sound like bees or other insects.
How do hummingbirds communicate?
Hummers communicate with one another primarily by chittering and other vocalizations and by flying toward one another aggressively, to chase each other away.
Chirping: The outer tail-feathers of male Anna's Hummingbird vibrate during display- dives and produce a loud chirp. When courting, the male ascends about 60feet before diving over an interested female at high speed (35 to 60mph) and producing a high-pitched sound. Experiments showed that the birds could not make the sound when missing their outer tail-feathers, and that those same feathers could produce the dive-sound in a wind tunnel. The bird can sing at the same frequency as the tail-feather chirp, but its weak syrinx (vocal cord) is not capable of the same volume.
Hummingbird flight
Hummingbirds are amazing to watch. They are able to fly up, down, forward, backward, sideways, and even upside down. In hovering flight, the wings move forward and backward--not up and down--and trace a figure-8, with lift being produced by both the forward AND backward strokes. Normal wing beat rate is about 80 times per second, up to 200 times per second in courtship flight. Hummingbirds are famous for their aerial display. Some displays are courtship displays; other displays are aggressive. They are able to perch and will do so at feeders regularly, but because they fly so much, their feet are poorly developed. They can barely walk at all. The