SMALL BUT SPEEDY.
TINY BUT AGGRESSIVE.
LITTLE BODIES, BIG APPETITES.
Hummingbirds are a study in extremes. They are the lightest North American birds. Most weigh less than two pennies at 3 to 4 grams. They have the fastest wings and heartbeats, the most efficient metabolisms, and the most minuscule eggs. The list could go on.
But hummingbirds are tough survivalists. Many of the actions that help them persevere also make them fun to watch. Here are amazing hummingbird traits and behaviors you might witness and the biological reasons behind them.
WHIRRING FEATHERS
Soon after Chris Clark, an associate professor at the University of California, Riverside, began studying Anna's hummingbirds, he wondered about their tails. "They're these little fighter jets," he says. "What are they doing evolving these really long tails that might slow them down?"
He discovered in his research that the stiff tail feathers of male Anna's make songlike sounds. These noises are part of the courtship display as the males dive to attract females' favor.
The wings of hummingbirds make different sounds-what Chris calls wing trills. "On broad-tailed hummingbirds, the males have this little notch in the outer part of their wings," he says. "They sound like a cricket when they fly."
Other species, including Allen's, rufous, and to a lesser extent ruby-throated and black-chinned, also have these trills. And in these birds, the trills are in place of songs, Chris says, with males using the sounds to declare and defend territory.
This story is from the June/July 2022 edition of Birds & Blooms.
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This story is from the June/July 2022 edition of Birds & Blooms.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Sense or Nonsense? - Why some birds can taste and smell - but others can't
Does a porcelain berry taste like a blueberry to a gray catbird? Does a block of lard smell like frying bacon to a northern flicker? The short answer is no. While some avian species do have a well-adapted sense of taste or smell, they can't distinguish between flavors and odors the way humans can. They're not picking up every ingredient in the suet you put out, says José Ramírez-Garofalo, an ornithology researcher at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the director of Freshkills Biological Station in Staten Island, New York.
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Food-Focused and Fierce - Meet Canada jays and learn why they eat almost anything they can find
Even if you haven't heard of Canada jays, you've heard of their relatives. Members of the corvid family, they belong to the same group as American crows, blackbilled magpies, and jays including blue, Steller's and scrub. "Unlike many of the other jays, a Canada jay doesn't have a crest of any kind; it just has a rounded head," says Dale Gentry, director of conservation for Audubon Upper Mississippi River.In 2018, the Canada jay's name was changed from gray jay, but Dale thinks the former adjective was fitting. "Most of its body is shades of gray with some white," he says. "There are different subspecies that have different physical traits, but most of them have some lighter coloring on their foreheads, upper breasts and throats, each with a darker streak that starts at each eye and goes back."
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