Can Humming Birds Sit Down?

I've heard them all! Hummingbirds can't sit down because ... they can't sit still; they have to eat constantly; and my favorite, they don't have feet. All of these, however, are false. Hummingbirds can sit down.



 

Do hummingbirds sing?

Hummingbirds make chirps and peeps that have been
described as 'creaky hinges' and 'squeaky wheels'. Listen
to this  recording of a Black-chinned Hummingbird
and see what you think. Thanks to the Cornell
Lab of Ornithology, Macaulay Library

Now I ask you, if a hummingbird couldn't sit down, how would they lay an egg? It would be quite a feat of skill, aiming an egg coming from their posterior into such a tiny nest on the fly. I'd be even more impressed with these little birds than I already am.

Hummingbirds have very high metabolisms thus requiring them to search for food during most of their waking hours. During this daily activity they take short breaks to sit on tiny branches and preen. Often hummingbirds will sing from these perches as well. To me, their song sounds remarkably like a squeaky wagon wheel.

When it comes to being still, sleeping does pose a challenge. A hummingbird's high metabolism may cause them to starve over the short duration of a single night. To avoid this, hummingbirds go into a torpor when asleep. Similar to dormancy, torpor is a deep sleep during which the animal's metabolism slows down, thus requiring less energy. The difference between this and dormancy is that, when in torpor, a hummingbird can be roused by outside stimuli whereas an animal that is dormant cannot.

If Hummingbirds Can't Sit Still for Long, How Do They Sit on Their Eggs?

By Kevin Bondelli

Hummingbirds spend very little time sitting on their eggs. The mother hummingbird used quite of bit of her body's resources to produce two eggs and therefore, she needs to build up her energy by eating even more than she typically would. And, she will soon have two more mouths to feed.

 

Female hummingbirds are single parents and therefore, planning ahead is a must! Because she will spend little time sitting on her eggs, she needs day care. This comes in the form of a cleverly designed nest that holds the eggs securely until they hatch and then stretches with the hatchlings as they grow. Cleverly, she builds her nest out of spider webs. The nest keeps the eggs snug, safe and provides insulation. After hatching, the nest flexes and grows along with the chicks.
 

 

Watch 2 Hummingbirds from Hatching to Fledging

By the Numbers

 

Click edit above to add content to this empty capsule.

Number of species: 325

                                          

State with the most resident species:   

Texas - 20 species                               

Arizona - 18 species

New Mexico - 17 species                   

California - 14 species

Louisiana - 13 species                         

Colorado - 12 species

Country with most native species:
Columbia (160)

Lifespan: 5 to 8 years                      
Heart rate: Over 1,000 beats/min.

Average adult weight: ~3g                
Smallest species: 5cm (Bee hummingbird)

Typical wing beats per second: ~60  



(c) Magnus Manske

Bug or Bird?

There is a large family of moths, the hawk moths (Sphingidae), that can easily be mistaken for hummingbirds. While these moths are slightly smaller than hummingbirds, they also hover and fly forwards or backwards. As hawk moths hover in front of flowers they sip nectar with their long proboscises and are important pollinators. 

 

by Sarah Striech

Have you ever wondered how a hummingbird drinks nectar? Even though their beaks are long and narrow, they don't work like straws. Without lips or cheeks they can't create suction to draw up the nectar. So how do they do it? They use their long, thin tongues. Really! Their long beaks reach into the flower and then they stick their tongues into the nectar to draw it into their mouths. Check out the hummingbird's tongue sticking out of its beak in the photo to the right.

Often, if you see something that you think is a hummingbird flying about your flowers at dusk, it is likely to be a hawk moth. Like hummingbirds, the hawk moths' wing beat so quickly that they make a buzzing sound. Unlike hummingbirds, hawk moths have antennae - a dead give away that they are insects and not birds!





 

 

Glint of green and blue.
A flash, a buzz, here, now gone.

    Happiness a-wing.

                    — R. Copeman

 
Nature Snacks, Brain Food for the Nature Curious by Ruth Copeman Carll is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at naturesnacks.blogspot.com. (excludes photographs and video/audio links)