A hummingbird's heart can beat up to 1,260 times a minute!

Did you know that a hummingbird's heart can beat up to 1,260 times a minute?  This is to sustain its rapid and prolonged activity level.

Hummingbirds can hear and see better than humans and have little to no sense of smell. They only weigh as little as a penny or as much as 10 pennies, considering that a penny weighs only 2.5 grams.

Hummingbirds on average are 8.5 centimeters in length, making them the tiniest birds in the world. Their hearts weigh 2.5% of their total body weight; the brain represents 4.2%.  They are very smart birds- they can recognize all the flowers they have travelled to and how long each flower refills with nectar!

Hummingbirds have to constantly lap up flower nectar; if not, they can die from starvation, due to its high metabolic requirements (Their core body temperature is properly maintained from 105-109 degrees Fahrenheit!). They can live on average for 5 years but can exceed 10 years on few occasions.

The oldest recorded history of the hummingbird was noted by the Taino Native Americans during the time of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World.  They believed that the hummingbirds represented life on Earth and that the warrior hummingbirds were called Colobir, since they have a peaceful disposition, but will fiercely defend their territory.  This word, Colobir, is similar to the French word for hummingbird, or colibri.

A colorful hummingbird drinking nectar from a receptacle!

Some more interesting Hummingbird trivia facts:

• Hummingbirds can be very colorful and are very fast; they can fly an average of 25-30 miles per hour and can flap their wings about 70 times per minute!  

• They are the only bird to fly both forward and backward.

• Hummingbirds have the least amount of feathers out of all of the birds; 1,000 to 1,500; the small amount of features make it easier for hummingbirds to fly.

• During spring and winter migrations, the ruby-throated hummingbird can fly more than 500 miles across the Gulf of Mexico.

• The smallest bird species in North America is the calliope hummingbird, which has a length of only 3 inches!

• The smallest species of Hummingbird is the bee hummingbird, which has a length of only 2.25 inches and it native to Cuba.

• 25 to 30 percent of a hummingbird's weight is represented in its pectoral muscles; these are the muscles that allow the hummingbird to fly efficiently.

• Hummingbirds can quickly lap up the sweet nectar from flowers, in fact, 10 to 15 times a second!

• The tongue of the hummingbird is unique; the edge of its tongue is like a vacuum, which sucks up nectar until its tongue.  The hummingbird is then able to swallow the nectar in one gulp.

• A hummingbird's egg is as small as a jellybean!

• Hummingbirds are not romantic birds; the male will mate with any female hummingbird within his territory, while the female hummingbird will build the nest, warm the eggs, and care for her babies all by herself.  That is a lot of work for a small bird!

• Hummingbirds can only be found in the Western Hemisphere, spanning from southeastern Alaska, in North America, all the way to southern Chile in South America!