I remember when I was in the fifth or sixth grade of elementary school, I was once arranged by the health committee to go to the door of the teaching building to clean the green belt between classes, and I didn't want to take math class, so I rubbed and rubbed and cleaned very slowly.
Just as I was about to finish sweeping and preparing to return to the classroom, I noticed that there was something flying next to the plants in the green belt, and there was a buzzing sound, I thought it was a wasp, but the yellow-yellow-green little animal was obviously much fatter than the wasp, its wings flapped quickly, and it also made a hovering motion in the air.
Later I asked the nature teacher, and the teacher said it was a hummingbird.
When I was young, I believed it, and it wasn't until I learned a lot about animals that I realized that what I saw was not a hummingbird, but a moth.
Macroglossum stellatarum of the bean-beaked moth
<h1>Hummingbird: I heard you've all seen me? </h1>
Later I posted a question online: Did you ever see hummingbirds when you were a kid? Most of the following netizens have answered: I have seen that when I was a child, rural areas and counties and towns were very common, very small, would levitate, eat nectar, and must be hummingbirds.
It can be seen that it is not the only nature teacher in my elementary school who admits mistakes, but a relatively common phenomenon, which may be related to the popular science works about hummingbirds in that year.
The descriptions of hummingbirds in popular science books are like this:
Hummingbirds, small in size, with fast wings swinging frequency, can make hovering, upside-down movements, have a long mouth, and suck nectar.
Many people have coincided with the kind of small animals they have seen in their memories. But in fact, most of the "hummingbirds" we saw when we were children were moths, including a variety of long-beaked moths and transfiguration moths.
The real hummingbird is like this picture below.
Archilochus colubris, the red-throated northern hummingbird
<h1>Hummingbird: If you want to see me, please go abroad</h1>
Why is it that when we were children, most of the moths and not hummingbirds we saw in the countryside and urban green belts were moths? Quite simply, there is no species of hummingbird in China.
Not to mention China, not even the whole of Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, all hummingbirds (more than three hundred species) are endemic to the American continent.
In addition to moths, there are also some small birds of the sunbird family in southern China that are similar in appearance to hummingbirds, and also love to suck nectar, which is easily confused with hummingbirds, but it is not a real hummingbird, and the morphological similarity between them is the result of convergence and evolution.
White-eared hummingbird Basilinna leucotis
Hummingbirds are found on the American continent, with the most abundant in South America, and a few species of hummingbirds in the southern part of North America.
In terms of size, the hummingbird species are all very small and cute, and they also have the smallest surviving bird in the world, the hummingbird Mellisuga helenae.
Adult hummingbirds are about 5 centimeters long and weigh less than 2 grams, smaller than hamsters. Even the largest giant hummingbird in the hummingbird family, Patagona gigas, weighs only 18 to 21 grams, which is about the same weight as three 1 yuan steel hammers, which is really worthy of being a small point in the bird family, very poking and cute.
Sucking hummingbird Mellisuga helenae
<h1>Mini birds, mini nests, mini eggs</h1>
In everyone's impression, hummingbirds are professional nectar suckers, but in fact, most hummingbirds are omnivores, in addition to eating nectar, they will also eat some aphids, mosquitoes, small beetles, ants, spiders and other small animals.
And hummingbirds not only eat spiders, but also engage in some waste utilization - collecting cobwebs to build nests.
Hummingbirds also have small nests (about the size of half-cut walnut shells) and are usually built between branches and bushes, but also in some tropical areas hummingbirds build their nests under wide leaves.
The materials used to build the nest include twigs, moss, lichens, leaves and fragments of bark, lined with soft feathers on the inside and wrapped in spider silk on the outside, fixing the nest to leaves or branches.
Hummingbirds generally lay two eggs, and the diameter of the eggs is between 8 and 20 mm, which means that the largest hummingbird egg is also 2 centimeters in size, which is the smallest among living birds.
Nest of the spot-tailed hummingbird Tiretes ruckeri
<h1>When flying becomes a luxury sport</h1>
Hummingbirds are not only small, they also have many characteristics that distinguish them from other birds.
First of all, hummingbirds fan their wings very quickly when flying, the wings of large hummingbirds fan 12 to 15 times per second, and the wings of small hummingbirds can fan 70 to 80 times per second.
Flapping their wings at high speed causes them to hum as they fly, like bees, which is one of the origins of hummingbird names.
To support such rapid flapping of its wings, hummingbirds have the highest metabolic rate among thermostatic animals, with a heartbeat of 500 to 1,200 beats per minute and a breathing rate of about 240 breaths per minute.
This also caused the huge oxygen consumption of hummingbirds' muscle tissue, and flying became a very energy-consuming and strenuous exercise for them.
Fork fan-tail hummingbird Loddigesia mirabilis
So hummingbirds need a lot of energy to meet metabolic needs, and also need to quickly convert food into calories for themselves to squander.
The nectar and other sugar sources they drink can be converted into new "fuel" to replenish their energy in just over 30 minutes, with a conversion rate of nearly 100% and almost no waste.
But this is not the way to go, so in order to save energy, hummingbirds have evolved a hibernation-like hibernation mechanism.
Purple long-tailed hummingbird Aglaiocercus coelestis
<h1>The most efficient "dieter"</h1>
When hummingbirds rest or sleep, their heartbeat and breathing rate will drop sharply, the heartbeat will drop from thousands of times per minute to 50 to 180 times per minute, and the body temperature will also drop from 40 degrees Celsius to 18 to 20 degrees Celsius, entering a dormant state, and the energy consumption is greatly reduced.
But even so, hummingbirds still lose weight at a rate of 0.04 grams per hour when they sleep, losing 10% of their entire body weight in one night.
Red-billed ribbon hummingbird Trochilus polytmus
<h1>In all things, there are advantages and disadvantages</h1>
In order to obtain food, avoid predators, and reduce the existential crisis, hummingbirds evolve into such a small size, they must bear the disadvantages of too fast metabolism and high energy consumption.
However, there is no shortage of food in the origin of hummingbirds, and sometimes hummingbirds follow the gardens and botanical gardens established by humans.
Because hummingbirds can promote the spread of pollen and catch some disturbing small insects, local residents are mostly friendly to these birds, often hanging small kettles outdoors, filled with sugar water, for hummingbirds to eat and drink at any time.
Flash-feathered hummingbird Aglaeactis cupripennis