Introducing... a month of Hummingbird-related content!

This April, we're doing a Hummingbird special!

Hummingbirds are one of the most well-known and beloved birds in the world.

However, Singapore (where I’m from) is home to exactly zero species of hummingbirds. How tragic! :(

Image credit: New Scientist. Two colourful hummingbirds! The Tufted Coquette (left) and the Fiery-throated Hummingbird (right).

There are no hummingbirds in the whole of Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe or Antarctica. Except perhaps in zoos and private collections!

Over the next month, I’ll go into more detail of why this is so, and what birds we do commonly see in Singapore, that we mistake for hummingbirds.

Other content you can look out for:

• How hummingbirds slow down their heart rate by over 95% when they rest; existing in a state in between sleep and death! :O

• What hummingbird heartbeats can teach us about being alive: It seems that among all animals (including humans), a heart is wired to die out after a certain number of heart beats. That means an animal with a slower-beating heart lives longer than a fast-beating heart. And since hummingbirds have one of the fastest heartbeats in the world, what does that mean for their short, magnificent lives?!

• Voodoo sex doll hummingbirds!!

In the meantime, here are some pictures of hummingbirds, and their respective fun facts! :D

The Bee Hummingbird - the world’s smallest bird. They are found found only in Cuba and weigh less than 2 grams (or a dime coin in American currency).

Image credit: National Audubon Society. This is the Bee Hummingbird, native to the island of Cuba in the Caribbean. It is the world's smallest bird! The bird's slender, pointed bill is adapted for probing deep into flowers. In one day, the Bee Hummingbird may visit 1,500 flowers.

The sword-billed hummingbird, whose bill (or beak) is longer than the rest of its body! They use their bills to drink nectar from flowers with long, deep petals. While most hummingbirds preen and scratch themselves using their bills, sword-billed hummingbirds have to use their feet instead!

Image credit: Flickr. This is a Sword-billed Hummingbird. They are among the largest species of hummingbird, and are known for their unusually long bills, being the only bird to have a beak longer than the rest of its body! It uses its bill to drink nectar from flowers with long corollas and has coevolved with the flower species Passiflora mixta.

The Swallow-tailed Hummingbird; a large (for a hummingbird) and very aggressive guys who will defend rich food sources from other nectarivores! Due to their large size, they is generally dominant over other species of hummingbirds.

However!! They are the definition of chihuahua-energy, and these little birds will even attack much larger birds by diving at them when they perch. During breeding season, the Swallow-tailed Hummingbird will go and "dive-bomb" birds twice its own length or more!

Image credit: Wikipedia. The Swallow-tailed Hummingbird is native to the Caatinga and Cerrado of Brazil, and adjacent parts of northern and eastern Bolivia, and far northern Paraguay. In the coastal regions, it occurs from French Guiana to Santa Catarina, Brazil.

I hope you liked today’s post, and are looking forward to the next. As a bonus, here are some more fun facts:

1. If we had a hummingbird’s insane metabolic rate, we’d have to eat over 300 hamburgers a day to survive (which honestly sounds nauseating).

2. Hummingbirds hearts can beat as fast as 1,260 beats per minute. On the other hand, a normal resting adult heart rate ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute (with mine at around 63 bpm).

3. To sustain their supercharged metabolisms, hummingbirds must eat once every 10 to 15 minutes!

4. Eating so much requires hummingbirds to visit numerous flowers daily - between 1,000 to 2,000 flowers a day! They have no time to waste on bird blogs like mine.

5. Hummingbirds look tiny and sweet, but are territorial, and can be aggressive!

That’s all for now. See you again soon!