What is a hummingbird?
A: A bird native to the Americas and comprise the biological family
Trochilidae.
With about 361 species and 113 genera, they occur from
Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most of the species are found where?
A: In the tropics.
They are small birds, with most species measuring how
long?
A: 7.5–13 cm (3–5 in) in length.
How long ago did hummingbirds split from their sister
group, the swifts and treeswifts?
A: Around 42 million years ago.
Why are they are known as hummingbirds?
A; Because of the humming sound created by their beating wings.
They hover in mid-air at rapid wing-flapping rates,
which vary from around 12 beats per second in the largest species to around
how many in small hummingbirds?
A: 80 per second.
As calculated by displacement of body size, the rufous
hummingbird makes perhaps the longest what?
A: Migratory journey of any bird in the world.
At just over 3 in long, rufous birds travel how many
miles one-way from Alaska to Mexico in late
summer?
A: 3,900 miles, a distance equal to 78,470,000 body lengths.
For nutrition, hummingbirds eat a variety of insects,
including what?
A: Mosquitoes, fruit flies, gnats in flight, or aphids on leaves and
spiders in their webs.
The lower beak of hummingbirds is flexible and can bend
how much?
A: As much as 25 degrees when it widens at the base, making a larger surface
for catching insects.
Hummingbirds hover within what?
A: Insect swarms in a method called "hover-hawking" to facilitate feeding.
Hummingbirds do not spend all day flying, as the energy
cost would be what?
A: Prohibitive.
Most of their activity consists of what?
A: Sitting or perching.
Hummingbirds eat many small meals and consume around
half their weight in what?
A: Nectar (twice their weight in nectar, if the nectar is 25% sugar) each
day.
Hummingbirds digest their
food rapidly due to their
what?
A: Small size and high metabolism.
Their high metabolism makes them vulnerable to what?
A: Starvation.
Hummingbird beaks are flexible, and their shapes vary
dramatically as an adaptation for what?
A: Specialized feeding.
The two halves of a hummingbird's bill have a
pronounced what?
A: Overlap, with the lower half (mandible) fitting tightly inside the upper
half (maxilla).
When a hummingbird feeds on nectar the bill is usually
what?
A: Opened only slightly, allowing the tongue to dart out and into the
interior of flowers.
How do hummingbird’s drink?
A: With their long tongues by rapidly lapping nectar.
In the wild, hummingbirds visit flowers for food,
extracting nectar, which is what?
A: 55% sucrose, 24% glucose, and 21% fructose on a dry-matter basis.
White granulated sugar is used in what?
A: Hummingbird feeders in a 25% concentration as a common recipe.
Hummingbirds will defend feeders more aggressively when
sugar content is at what?
A: 35%, indicating preference for nectar with higher sugar content.
Organic and "raw" sugars contain iron, which can be
what?
A: Harmful, and brown sugar, agave syrup, molasses, and artificial
sweeteners also should not be used.
Hummingbirds obtain all necessary nutrients from what?
A: The insects they eat.
Hummingbirds have exceptional visual acuity providing
them with discrimination of what?
A: Food sources while foraging.
What insect is often mistaken for a hummingbird?
A: The hummingbird moth.
Trinidad and Tobago are known as what?
A: The land of the hummingbird.
What is the Gibson Hummingbird?
A: An acoustic guitar model/series produced by the Gibson Guitar
Corporation.
