Fun Facts About the Ruby-throated Hummingbird

• Hummingbirds weigh 1/10th of an ounce; about the weight of a penny.
• Hummingbirds hearts are larger proportionally to their body than any other bird or mammal.
• Hummingbirds have such underdeveloped legs that they are unable to walk well.
• A mother hummingbird weighs only about eight times more than her egg.
• Hummingbirds lay the world’s smallest bird egg.
• Hummingbirds generally lay two eggs, each about the size of a blueberry.
• Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have one of the highest nesting success rates of any neotropical migrant.
• Ruby-throated Hummingbirds will have two broods, each taking 45 days from nest construction to fledging.
• Hummingbirds use spider webs as glue to attach the nest to a tree branch as well as a binding agent for the building materials.
• The nest is about the size of a golf ball; around 1 inches in diameter.
• Only about 20% of Ruby-throated Hummingbird fledglings survive their first year.
• Hummingbirds eat about every ten minutes.
• Hummingbirds learn to associate flower colors, like red, with food. They do not have an innate preference for red.
• Hummingbirds can drink up to twice their body weight in nectar every day
• Hummingbirds lap up nectar with their long tongues. There is a groove on either side of the tongue that creates a capillary action to help draw the nectar up the tongue and into the mouth during the lapping action.
• Hummingbirds can extend their tongue approximately a distance equal to the length of their bill.
• While lapping up nectar, Hummingbirds can move their tongues in and out of their bill at a rate of up to 12 times a second.
• Female Hummingbirds tongues are longer than the males.
• They eat insects and insect eggs on the ground and in trees. They love spiders and spider eggs. They use their bill and not their tongue to catch insects.
• Hummingbirds can fly up to 60 miles per hour, but typically fly at 30-45 miles per hour.
• They can hover and are the only birds able to fly backwards and upside down. They can do this because of an extremely mobile shoulder joint.
• Their wings beat 20-80 times per second.
• During the night, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds can enter into a state of torpor to save energy. Similar to a type of short-term hibernation, torpor reduces their metabolic activity and drops their heart rate from 1,200 beats per minute to 50 beats per minute.