Wildlife
Hummingbirds are a diverse family of over 300 species. They have feet so tiny that they cannot walk on the ground, and find it awkward to shuffle along a perch. Hummingbirds eat nectar for the most part, although they may catch an insect now and then for a protein boost. Their super fast wing beats use up a lot of energy, so they spend most of the day sitting around resting. To save energy at night, many species go into torpor.
Did you know?
The vervain hummingbird lays claim to the world's smallest bird egg, just 1cm long and weighing a mere 0.3g.
Scientific name: Trochilidae
Rank: Family
In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.
Service station
In Arizona, migrating hummingbirds know exactly where to go for food.
In Arizona, migrating hummingbirds know exactly where to go for food.
Suspended in silk
A bronzy hermit hummingbird gathers silk from a spiders web and weaves a pocket to cradle her young.
A bronzy hermit hummingbird gathers silk from a spiders web and weaves a pocket to cradle her young.
Whirling wings
Slow motion shows the extraordinary figure of eight beat of hummingbird wings.
Slow motion shows the extraordinary figure of eight beat of hummingbird wings.
The shading illustrates the diversity of this group - the darker the colour the greater the number of species. Data provided by WWF's Wildfinder.
The Hummingbirds can be found in a number of locations including: Amazon Rainforest, South America. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
Hummingbirds are birds that comprise the family Trochilidae. They are among the smallest of birds, most species measuring in the 7.5–13 cm (3–5 in) range. Indeed, the smallest extant bird species is a hummingbird, the 5-cm Bee Hummingbird. They can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings 12–80 times per second (depending on the species). As well to conserve energy while they sleep or when food is scarce, they have the ability to go into a hibernation-like state (torpor) where their metabolic rate is slowed to 1/15th of its normal rate.They are also the only group of birds able to fly backwards. Their English name derives from the characteristic rapid wing beats. They can fly at speeds exceeding 15 m/s (54 km/h; 34 mph).
This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.
Take a trip through the natural world with our themed collections of video clips from the natural history archive.
Life in slow motion
Slow motion filming techniques transform amazing wildlife moments into full scale events, and simple action into incredibly detailed video sequences.
BBC © 2012 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
