Hummingbirds - Pictures

Hummingbirds - Pictures - General Description

The wrist and the elbow bones are fused and thus not moveable. Wings move not in the up-and-down fashion, but alternatively, in the 8-shaped pattern. Hummingbirds have strong and muscular chest. This allows them to make as many as 100 wing beats per second or twice that number in a high power driven state or in an attempt by a male to enchant a female.

The ability to change colors accounts for a specific structure of their feathers. The upper layer of the plumage contains combinations of tiny air bubbles and melanin granules. Sunlight is refracted or reflected. The reflected and refracted light interacts in thousands of possible combinations. Due to this interaction it either accelerates of becomes muted and produces a tremendous number of light effects.

Hummingbirds consume large amounts of energy. That is attributable to a relatively high temperature of the body (40 degrees C) and extremely high heart rate (up to 500-600 beats per minute). At night time, when they fall into the state of torpor, the temperature falls down to 20 degrees and the heart rate plunges to 150-160 beats.

Hummingbirds eat insects and flower nectar. Insects supply proteins and nectar provides carbohydrates, which in turn produce calories. Dynamic lifestyle, high physical activity and intensive metabolism force the hummingbird to take many calories and, consequently, consume food in quantities that exceed the weight of the body. This results in the birds that almost constantly circle an area in search for food.

Hummingbirds have sharp and prolonged bills and coupled fringe-edged tongues, which make it convenient for them to take nectar. Hummingbirds also use their bills as a weapon when they fight against competitors in struggle for food or for a female hummingbird.

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