Category: Hummingbirds

The construction of the nest is vital to the female hummingbird. That is why the choice of nesting materials is extremely important. While the nest is constructed of many materials, have you ever wondered why female hummingbirds will use spiders webbing in the construction of the nest? This post will provide you with the answer to this question.

Hummingbirds use spider webs as glue to attach the nest to a tree branch as well as a binding agent for the building materials.

A silk of a spider’s web is incredibly strong. It has been compared to being as strong as steel on a weight basis.

A hummingbird’s nest are made of lichens, moss and fragments of bark, bound together with strands of spider web and lined with soft downy plant material like cottonwood fluff. The female hummingbird includes spiders webbing in the construction of the nest to try and ensure the strength of the nest itself as well as the safety of her young.

The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is a Neotropical migrant and it is known to have one of the highest nesting success rates when compared to other Neotropical migrants.

Even though Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have one of the highest nesting success rates, only about 20% of these fledglings will survive their first year.

A Ruby-throated Hummingbird will usually have two broods, with each taking 45 days from nest construction to fledgling.

This species of hummingbird will nearly double their weight (from about 3.25 grams to 6 grams) before crossing the Gulf of Mexico. A single migration can become a nonstop flight of up to 500 miles over a period of 18 to 22 hours.

This species of hummingbird was hunted during the nineteenth century for its beautiful plumage, but the Ruby-throated Hummingbird now enjoys protection from harvest through the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. This act declares unlawful the taking, killing, or possessing of migratory birds. It is also listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna of 1975.

The hummingbird’s tongue is quite long. Just how long may surprise you. This post will tell you that and more about a hummingbird’s tongue.

A hummingbird uses its tongue to lick up nectar. One source stated that a hummingbird’s tongue can be thought of as being a straw with a slot cut in it. The hummingbird licks up nectar at the rapid rate of approximately 13 licks per second.The tongue of the hummingbird is actually quite long at roughly twice the length of the bird’s bill or 3/4 of an inch long. Female hummingbirds’ tongues are longer then the males.

The hummingbird’s tongue is vital to its survival. It is my hope that this post as given you some more information about the hummingbird’s tongue.

I am constantly amazed by the common falsehoods many people, both adults and children, still have about hummingbirds. Even in this age of technology and endless information, there are still people who mistakenly believe that hummingbirds do no have feet. How this can still be believed today is beyond me, because if you have ever seen a hummingbird it is obvious that the bird has feet. Just to be perfectly clear, hummingbirds do indeed have feet, and this post will provide some information about the hummingbird’s feet.

A hummingbird’s feet serve only one purpose, which is to enable the hummingbird to perch. Whenever a hummingbird must travel any distance, even just two inches, the bird must fly. Hummingbirds will lift off from a perch without pushing off and they rise solely through their own power. The hummingbirds obtain this power by flapping their wings at almost full speed before lifting off. Hummingbirds fly at a very high rate of speed and have the ability to stop suddenly and quickly and still make a soft landing. Hummingbirds are extremely light and therefore they do not build up much momentum.

The feet of the hummingbird are extremely weak and therefore the hummingbird is virtually unable to walk. The hummingbird uses its feet to unable it to perch.

As this post clearly examines, hummingbirds do indeed have feet. The hummingbird’s feet are extremely weak and perhaps poorly developed, but nevertheless the feet are still vitally important to the hummingbird because the feet enable the hummingbird to perch.