- They are the only birds that can fly backwards, side-to-side and hover due to the structure of their wing joints allowing them to rotate 180 degrees.
- Their wings move in a figure 8 pattern.
- A hummingbird beats its wings on average 53 times a second, that’s 3,180 beats per minute.
- The average flight speed of a hummingbird is 30 mph but can reach up to 50 mph.
- A hummingbird’s heart will beat as fast as 1,260 times per minute when in full flight.
- When at rest a hummingbird will enter ‘torpor, it is a hibernation-like state that helps conserve energy, during torpor the heart rate drops around 50-250 beats per minute.
- These birds visit 100s to 1,000s of flowers every day to keep up with their metabolism, also pollinating flowers in the process.
- Hummingbirds need to eat every 10-15 minutes.
- These birds are highly aggressive and territorial with food resources.
- Hummingbird vision extends into the ultraviolet range, allowing them to easily pick out orange, yellow and red colors to find flowers easily.
- Hummingbirds have amazing spatial memory, meaning they can remember locations of feeders and bloom peak of flowers and where the flowers are located for years.
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