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As the world’s smallest bird, hummingbirds have a lot to hum about. They are able to fly forward, backward, right, left and upside down! The humming sound that you hear actually comes from the flapping of their wings. On average, a hummingbird will flap its wings about 50 times a second! That makes their wings look like a blur to the human eye. When a male hummingbird courts a female, he does a power dive to impress her. During this power dive, his wings can flap as many as 200 times a second!

A hummingbird has very fast breathing, a fast heartbeat and a high body temperature. To compensate, it must feed itself every 10 minutes all day, and can consume 2/3 of its body weight in nectar each day. Their long bills are the perfect tool for getting into the center of tubular flowers to lick the nectar with their long translucent tongues.

Like many animals, the hummingbird has been linked to many stories, legends and myths in various cultures. Because hummingbirds are only found in the western hemisphere, they do not exist in fairy tales from Europe and Africa. However, the Native Americans have adopted the hummingbird into many of their tales. The Hopi and Zuni tribes tell of the hummingbird as a symbol of rain. They believed that the hummingbird could convince the gods to rain during dry seasons, and because of this, the bird is often painted on water jars.

A Mayan legend says that the first hummingbirds were created from the small feather scraps that were left over from the creation of other birds. The god that made them was so proud of this little leftover creation, that he had a beautiful wedding for them. The sun sent rays down and gave the hummingbirds beautiful colors. But when they turned away from the sun, they look gray again like the original feathers from which they were made.

There are many other stories about hummingbirds. Although they are small, to many they represent big things: rain, beauty and life. You can buy special bird feeders that attract only hummingbirds. Give it a shot, you’ll have hours of fun watching these tiny feathery birds.