Hummingbirds are the smallest warm-blooded animals in the world, living in the virgin forests of the American continent and weighing only 2-3 grams. Hummingbirds can flap their wings like bees in a continuous and rapid manner. At the same time, it makes a humming sound. It's small and looks like a bumblebee flying in the air, so people call it a "hummingbird." Compared to other birds, hummingbirds have two very unique characteristics: one is that it can fly while sucking nectar in the air, and the other is that it can catch flying insects by deforming its beak.
Scientists in the Wisconsin wilderness use cameras to track and record the entire process of hummingbird activity, including how it flies, what it eats, how it shows off and court, how it defends its territory, how it catches insects in the air, and more. Finally, some of the birds' notable survival skills are gradually elucidated.
<h1>Excellent flying ability</h1>
There are more than 600 species of hummingbirds. Males generally weigh 2-3 grams, while females weigh about 4 grams. Due to the need to reproduce and feed offspring, females are heavier than males. Because hummingbirds flap their wings very quickly in flight, it has been unclear in past observations how their wings flap. Now scientists are using the latest high-speed cameras to uncover this secret: Hummingbird wings can be deformed. Unlike most birds, hummingbirds have wings with a rotating joint attached to its shoulder, and the entire wing joint is almost straight and inactive. As other birds fly forward, they flap their wings to create lift and thrust that allows them to ascend and fly forward. In addition to this ability, hummingbirds can also rotate their wings backwards, generating downward force and backward thrust. Hummingbirds counteract forward and backward forces by alternating their wings back and forth, up and down, so that hummingbirds can fly next to the flowers for a long time while eating nectar, which other birds do not have.
When hummingbirds fly in the air, their bodies remain vertical and their wings swing horizontally in a figure-of-8 shape. When the wings swing backwards, its body tilts briefly. Hummingbirds can take off on perches without any thrust and generate upward momentum by flapping their wings at full speed. Its body is very light and does not require much kinetic energy to accelerate. In addition, although hummingbirds fly very fast, they can suddenly stop in the air and then gently land on the ground, like feathers floating on the ground. Hummingbirds' wings flap 70 times a second, and even increase their tempo to 200 times per second during courtship.
By dissecting dead hummingbirds, scientists have found that hummingbirds' chest muscle fibers are also very different from those of other birds. Hummingbirds have red chest muscles, which ensures that it has enough blood and oxygen to enter the muscles during flight, so that its wings flap up quickly and do not fatigue quickly.
Hummingbirds have much sharper eyesight than humans. It can see objects from great distances, it can distinguish spectra that humans can't tell, and it can even see ultraviolet light. Hummingbirds are particularly fond of red flowers. Hummingbirds also have more hearing than humans. It can hear high-frequency sounds that humans can't hear, and can distinguish subtle differences in sound quality, which humans often can't do. Hummingbirds' paws are too small for them to walk. They can only be used as a tool to grab perching. Therefore, even if you only walk 5 centimeters, you need to rely on flying to complete it.
<h1> Excessive food intake</h1>
Hummingbirds breathe and beat very fast and have a high body temperature. Hummingbirds eat it every 10 minutes, and they eat more nectar than they do for a day. But the main ingredient in nectar is sugar, so hummingbirds are not enough to eat nectar alone. To increase muscle strength, it needs to replenish protein, especially for women feeding her chicks, and it also needs to supplement nutrients such as fat and amino acids, almost absent nectar, so hummingbirds must hunt a considerable number of insects every day to survive.
Hummingbirds have a long, tapered beak. Ideal for sucking nectar in the center of the flower tube. Hummingbirds can lick 13 times a second. Hummingbirds are often seen licking flowers quickly with their translucent tongues. Hummingbirds have an amazing memory. They even remember what they were watching a few years ago. When it flies into the flowers to forage for food, it occasionally carries pollen to nearby flowers, which plays a role in fertilization and pollination.
Depending on the size and length of the beak, there are two main ways for birds to catch flying insects in the air. Some toucans, such as nighthawks and frogbills, open their mouths and let insects fly directly into their mouths, eventually swallowing them into their bags. In contrast, birds with narrower beaks, such as flytraps, peck insects directly in the air with their beaks, just as they peck at insects in the air with forceps.
Judging from the structure and shape of the beak, hummingbirds should adopt the latter method of predation. However, some experts have found that hummingbirds not only resemble nighthawks when preying, but that their seemingly clumsy, needle-like beak can become wider and wider and more agile in catching insects.
To figure out how hummingbirds catch insects, scientists used a high-speed camera that captures 500 photos per second to film hummingbirds preying on fruit flies. Due to the slow scanning speed, one can clearly see details of hummingbirds appearing earlier than fruit flies. Scientists have found that hummingbirds use their lower jaws instead of their upper jaws to catch insects. What is even more surprising is that when the bird opens its long beak to catch insects, its lower beak suddenly bends down to a point in the middle, making its mouth wide and large, so that it can easily swallow the insect into its mouth.
Hummingbirds have upper and lower beaks like human jaws. The upper and lower beak bones are covered with a layer of tissue composed mainly of keratin. Unlike most vertebrates, many birds have upper jaws associated with nodes at the back of their mouths, so when the mouth is open, the beak can bend upwards. Some birds have joints in their jaws, but most birds do not, so their beaks are stiff and inactive. By turning the jaw, the bird's beak opens, and so does the human's mouth. The skeletal structure of hummingbirds belongs to the latter and is nothing special. But why would a hummingbird open its lower beak so wide when preying? In other words, how does it open its mouth? After years of research, the secret was finally revealed: when the hummingbird's lower beak is very large, it can bend and twist like a thin plastic plate. Are the bones bent? It sounds a little strange, but it does exist in nature. Crooked bones are rare, but not absent. For example, the wing bones of bats can be bent, and the hyoid bones of woodpeckers can be bent. The beak of a bird usually has many functions, such as the beak of a hummingbird, which is long and pointed, which is very helpful for it to draw nectar from the flower tube; At the same time, its lower beak can be deformed so that its mouth can be very large in order to catch flying insects. Hummingbirds have grooves on their tongues that can be used to catch insects in the air, as well as spiders and insects in leaves and webs. These functions of hummingbirds are the result of natural selection.
<h1>Male birds show off</h1>
Hummingbirds communicate through visual displays. Males sometimes lift their colorful necks and shake their heads from left to right while screaming. Females and birds usually stand on branches with feathers on their tails open, revealing white spots. Sometimes a hummingbird flies quickly in front of another heterosexual bird, flying back and forth. When flying in shuttle mode, it often shows its neck and tail to each other.
The tail of the male bird is the most distinctive of the birds. It has only four feathers, two of which are spikes, with long feathers on either side and a handful of feathers growing on top. It looks like a small fan. When the breeding season comes, the males swing their long-tailed feathers and wrap themselves around each other. At the same time, the feathers on both sides also dance, making a clicking sound, like a courtship dance, which is a unique way to attract females to mate.
Swooping show-offs are only done by male birds. When a male swoops to a critical position, it often makes a variety of humming, birding, or crackling sounds through the feathers and vocal cords on its wings. The trajectory of the male bird is U-shaped when swooping, and often flies very high when ascending.
The shuttle dance of the male bird is part of the courtship ritual. When a male finds a female willing to mate with it, it will fly very close to the female and make an arc flight in front of her. A black-jawed hummingbird flew like this in the bushes toward a female hummingbird standing on a branch, flying very fast, only 12 centimeters away from the female hummingbird. The female looked a little frightened and stared at it. The head stretches back and forth. Finally, the female tilts her tail and the male stands on it to complete the mating action. Usually, males gather in large groups and sing together to attract females into the mating zone.
<h1> Defend territory</h1>
Both males and females have their own territory. They often lie in the flowers, and once they find a foreign invasion, they will not hesitate to take off immediately and drive the intruder away. Battles to defend territory are often fierce. Hummingbirds often inflate their bodies when they fight. In duels, hummingbirds use their beaks and claws as weapons, accompanied by loud cries. When two hummingbirds clash fiercely over food, it often happens that one hummingbird swoops down from the air and attacks the other hummingbird perched in the bush. Hummingbirds perched in trees stand tall, spread their wings, and pose as enemies. When the other side is only a meter or two away from itself, it will quickly flap its wings and fly into the air. In China, we have competed fiercely. They flapped their wings against each other, stinged each other with their long beaks, then tied them together and began to spin in the air, and finally slowly landed on the ground. The battles on the battlefield are so intense that you can't see their size at all. All you could see was a blur of blue-and-black things swirling, their wing tips stirring the ground into dust. In the end, the loser is forced to let go of his mouth and fly away, while the winner occupies the place to feed.
Hummingbirds are rarely injured in battle, losing at most a few feathers. Because instinct tells it not to let the precious beak get hurt, or it could die for it.
Hummingbirds' calls are complex and varied, ranging from low grunts to loud screams. In addition to attracting the opposite sex, hummingbird calls are also used to deter violators. For example, hummingbirds will emit explosive screams, usually warning calls from males, with the aim of establishing and defending their territory, just as humans cry out to prevent others from invading their territory.
<h1>Long-distance migration</h1>
Most hummingbirds have a habit of migrating. The furthest migrators are the reddish-brown hummingbirds
<h1> Reddish-brown hummingbirds</h1>
And the red-throated hummingbird, they can even fly to their habitat 3,000 kilometers away.
<h1> Red-throated hummingbird</h1>
The red-throated hummingbird, which grows in Wisconsin, USA, flies thousands of kilometers away to Mexico every fall for the winter and returns next spring. Hummingbirds eat a lot of food before migrating in order to store enough fat energy for long flights. The red-throated hummingbird first migrated to the Florida peninsula, then to many islands in the sea, and finally to Mexico. Other hummingbirds fly along the Texas coastline. Despite the lack of sufficient evidence, many experts insist that many red-throated hummingbirds flew directly over the Gulf of Mexico to Mexico and returned along the same route the following spring.
In the absence of tailwinds and headwinds, the Red-throated Hummingbird can fly at speeds of up to 43 kilometers per hour. That means they have to fly 18 and a half hours to fly over the Gulf of Mexico. No one knows exactly how far they flew from Wisconsin to Mexico for the winter.
What scientists are really interested in is how hummingbirds can find their way home in the coming spring after flying such a long distance. Scientists once spotted a red-throated hummingbird that often foraged in a fixed place and found that the hummingbird flew back accurately the following spring.