Ruby-throated hummingbirds are among the tiniest birds on the planet, Scott Fitzpatrick walks us through a day in the life of these diminutive avians.
Hi, this is Scott Fitzpatrick from New Hampshire Audubon, bringing you Something Wild.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds are among the tiniest birds on the planet, but they're also among the biggest eaters. They need to take in enough energy to supply wings that can beat 53 times per second and hearts that can beat more than one thousand times per minute. In fact, hummingbirds have the highest metabolism of any animal on Earth. So, what keeps them going? Food---and lots of it!
Hummingbirds burn food so fast they often eat one and a half to three times their weight in nectar and insects each day. Let’s break that down for some perspective. Each day, hummers consume between three and eight calories. That doesn’t seem like much, but if humans had the same metabolism, we would have to consume approximately 155,000 calories a day. That’s 162 pints of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. OR 194 gallons of Gatorade! Every day! Don’t try this at home…
Hummingbirds burn calories so fast that at any given moment they are only hours away from starvation. So how do they survive overnight when they are not able to eat? They slow their metabolism by going into a state of mini-hibernation. The bird’s body temperature can drop almost 50 degrees, heart rate may slow to fewer than 50 beats per minute, and breathing may even briefly stop. Each morning, the birds slowly wake and warm up before heading off to find food.
Many people believe that hummingbirds don’t rest. In fact, they spend a majority of the day perched. Hey, if you beat your wings 53 times per second, you’d need to rest, too!
For Something Wild, I’m Scott Fitzpatrick.
Something Wild is a joint production of New Hampshire Audubon, New Hampshire Public Radio, and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
