Why
is the humming bird called so?
It
is because of the humming sound it makes while flying.
Have
you ever tried running and singing at the same time? It would be impossible
wouldn’t it? You would start panting within no time! Then how does the humming
bird manage this?
The
secret is that the sound made by this bird during the flight is not vocal at
all. It is caused by the rapid beating of its little wings, just like bees and
dragon flies. This little bird beats its wings around 60 to 80 times a second!
In
fact, the sounds made by the feathers of this bird are not restricted to
humming alone. The elaborate courtship displays of humming birds comprise of a
bomb dive from a great height. The dive is accompanied by a loud chirp. But
this chirp again, is not vocal. During the dive, the bird spreads out its tail
feathers, just for 60 milliseconds. The feathers vibrate for this brief period
and the air passing across them gives the chirp that attracts the female’s
attention.
Humming
birds are the smallest vertebrates, the smallest hummingbird, the Bee Hummingbird being no more than 2.25
inches long. These creatures can hover at one place in air for a long period of
time. They are capable of flying forwards, backwards, upwards and downwards, an
incredible feat that no other bird is capable of! This is possible because they
have wings that rotate through 180o. Unlike most birds that flap
their wings back and forth to fly, hummingbirds move their wings in the shape
of an eight, so that they can move in any direction. They have strong pectoral
muscles that make this possible.
Hummingbirds
are mainly found in the American continents. The feed on nectar from flowers,
from where they get their sugars. For proteins, they feed on insects.
Further
reading:
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