Facts about Hummingbirds by Donald Burger, Houston, TX

Facts about Hummingbirds
by Donald Ray Burger
Attorney at Law

Hummingbirds are native to South America. When early Spanish explorers encountered hummingbirds they called them Joyas voladoras, flying jewels.
In the eighteenth century, when Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus devised the scientific classification system still in use today (kingdom, phylum, class, order and family) hummingbirds were assigned their own family: Trochilidae, from the Greek trochilos, meaning small bird.
Only ten species of hummers have significant ranges north of Mexico. Only the ruby-throated hummingbird ranges east of the Mississippi.
Hummingbird nests average about 1-1/2 inches in outside diameter. A penny will almost fill the inside diameter.
Hummingbird eggs are so small that a penny would completely cover three of them. The usual brood, however, is two eggs.
It takes hummingbird eggs two to 2 1/2 weeks to hatch.
Hatchlings remain in the nest for about three weeks.
Most hummers produce one brood per season.
Hummers typically live five years.
Hummers usually feed every ten minutes throughout the day.
A hummingbird's heart beats 1,260 beats per minute during the day and slows to 50 beats per minute during the night.
Normal flight speed for a hummingbird is 25 to 30 mph, but hummers can dive at speeds of up to 60 mph.
Hummingbirds have split tongues, which they fold into a tube when feeding.
Although male hummers are more colorful than female hummers, female hummingbirds are relatively colorful.
Hummingbirds eat both nectar and the small insects found near the nectar.
Hummingbirds cannot become addicted to the nectar you put out in your feeder. They will leave the feeders when they need to. You do not have to worry about their staying too long for the easy food.

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