Our Smallest Visitors

August is halfway over, school is starting soon, the sun is setting earlier and animals are preparing for migration.

Certain species start migrating as early as August, including our smallest visitor, the hummingbird.

Hummingbirds are quick birds, flying at speeds exceeding 34 m.p.h. and averaging 25 m.p.h. Not only are they fast fliers with their wings beating 12-90 times per second, but they are talented too.

Hummingbirds are the only group of birds able to fly backwards. They can also hover, fly up, fly down, sideways, and even fly upside down for short distances; thanks to their wings that can rotate in a circle.

To sustain that activity, hummingbirds have a high metabolism, the highest of all animals besides insects. Their heart beat can reach an amazing 1,260 beats per minute. Due to their high metabolism and heart rate, hummingbirds are constantly hours away from starving and can barely survive overnight.

To reduce their need for food at night or when food is scarce, hummingbirds are able to enter torpor, a hibernation-like state. Torpor allows them to reduce their heart rate and breathing rate dramatically.

Hummingbirds feed throughout the day on small invertebrates (insects and spiders) and nectar. They can drink up to five times their own body weight in nectar every day and can lap up nectar at thirteen licks per second with their grooved tongue.  Nectar provides the energy necessary to search for insects.

Being a connoisseur of nectar, hummingbirds will only drink from flowers that have a sugar content of 10 to 25 percent. Like bees, they are able to assess the sugar content of nectar and will skip over flowers if the nectar isn’t sweet enough.

Most hummingbird-pollinated flowers produce nectar with around 25 percent sugar content, mainly consisting of sucrose. Whereas, insect-pollinated flowers usually produce nectar with stronger fructose and glucose concentrations.

Hummingbirds are able to remember every flower they visit and how long it will take for the flower to refill with nectar. They visit around 1,000 flowers every day and, therefore, are important pollinators as their bills match perfectly with the tubular shaped blooms from which they feed.

Even though hummingbirds have a high metabolism and need plenty of energy, they only spend 10-15 percent of the day feeding. They spend the rest of the day digesting and perching. However, you will rarely see them walk because they have poorly developed feet.

Hummingbirds are able to fly long distances. Most of the hummingbirds in the western United States and Canada migrate south for the winter into Southern California or Mexico. They are able to migrate by storing fat and will gain 25 to 40 percent of their body weight before migration.

Three species of hummingbirds migrate to Boundary County for the summer and start to leave in August and September. So if you hear and see our smallest visitor, it probably is either a Black-chinned, Rufous or Calliope hummingbird.

Laura Roady is owner of Roady Outdoor Photography and is a freelance photographer and writer. She can be reached at 267-5397 or at roadyphoto@gmail.com.