Living at such a high metabolic rate requires a fine adjustment of food consumptions with precise calculations. In order to meet this high energy demand, the amount of nectar a colibri consumes every day has to be equal to their body weight. Therefore, a colibri consumes more energy than other birds it’s basically a fighter jet. The colibri’s chest muscles were perfectly created for flapping quickly and take up 40% of the hummingbird’s total body mass.
In this regard, given that a colibri flaps its wings 80 times per second, it takes a great deal of energy to maintain such a rapid movement. The amount of energy spent is related to the bird’s body size and flapping speed. While in most other birds the movement of the wings produces the power to lift up and down, Hummingbirds, like helicopters, can perform movements such as hanging in the air or standing steadily as well as flying backward or rising in a vertical direction.įigure 8 Metabolic rate and energy consumptionįlying requires a lot of energy. Moving back and forth, the wings oscillate in the form of the figure 8 in the air. This speed increases up to 200 per second during a short spike while escaping from an enemy. Under the genus Colibri, the horned Sungem (Heliactin bilophus) species flaps its wings 90 times per second the purple amethyst Colibri (Calliphlox amethystina) flaps its 80 times per second. The wings move at an incredible speed in a seemingly complex pattern, drawing circles back and forth 50 to 80 times per second, depending on the species. How the hummingbird fliesĪ hummingbird flaps its wings so fast that the motion cannot be seen by the human eye but only detected through special cameras. With their colorful feathers, they are some of the most beautiful birds. There are around 330-340 species of hummingbird and they live only in North and South America and the nearby oceanic islands. The bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), considered to be the smallest bird in the world, is only 1.96-inch-long and weighs 0.06 ounces. The world’s smallest birds are equipped with mind-blowing structures and functions that push all physiological and anatomical boundaries.
Research on hummingbirds (also known as nectar birds or Colibris), the smallest of the 9,800 bird species living today, has revealed remarkable facts.
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