Humming Birds - The Cute Little Smallest Birds

Humming birds are very small birds that have a high metabolism. They are considered to be among the smallest birds measuring 7.5-14 cm in length, 2-20gms in weight, with long narrow bills enabling them to feed the nectar of flowers and a small saber like wings. These birds have bright plumage with exotic coloration. Although these birds are very small, these spend lots of energy in flying. They keep on flapping their wings continuously nearly 18-20 times per second. While rapidly flapping their wings they make a humming sound and sometimes sound like bee or other insects. They can fly at speeds more than 15 m/s. They have the ability to fly up, down, forward, backward and sides.

Like bees, humming birds feed on nectar of certain flowers. They are able to access the sugar in the nectar and prefer those flowers whose sugar content is high, at least that have more than 10% sugar. These birds also feed on insects and spiders to meet the needs of nutrients, minerals, vitamins and amino acids. They digest their food rapidly due to their small size and high metabolism. They can consume food twice their body weight from the nectar. The only thing is that the flower should be high in sugar content and long tubular in shape so that the long narrow bill and the tube like tongue can extract the nectar.

These birds cannot walk too much as they have poorly developed feet and hence fly too much. As their wings are well adapted they feel more comfortable in flight. The flight of humming birds is amazing, as they can fly in all sides and also can stop at the mid air. While migrating, they cover great distances. Because of their aerial capability these birds are very famous.

Humming birds cannot sing a true song like the others can do. But they vocalize short and buzz trills chirping notes. These birds are attracted towards bright colored prettiest flowers, mostly red or orange, giving a long distance sign to the fastest flying bird. These birds being the smallest bird of the world belong to the Trochilidae family. The most noticeable thing in these birds is that they keep on flying in search of food. They are very cute and have plenty of attractive characteristics.