Bee-sized dynamos that hover at nearly a hundred wingbeats
Hummingbirds are American nectar specialists in the family Trochilidae—about 375 species from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Their wings can beat roughly twelve times a second in giants and up to ninety-nine in tiny hoverers, producing the hum that named them, while males flash the richest blues and greens among birds.
These are the smallest living birds and the smallest warm-blooded vertebrates. Adults usually run 7.5 to 13 centimetres; the bee hummingbird is only about five to six centimetres and under two grams, while the giant hummingbird stretches to 23 centimetres and 17–31 grams. Long bills sip nectar, yet every species also takes insects. Compact bodies and blade-like wings allow helicopter flight in any direction, including true hover. Measured top speeds exceed 15 metres per second, and diving courting males can hit about 23 metres per second from roughly 30 metres up.
Metabolism is extreme: the highest mass-specific rate among homeotherms. When food is scarce or night falls, many enter torpor and drop metabolism to about one-fifteenth of daytime levels. Most species do not migrate, but the rufous hummingbird travels roughly 3,900 miles twice a year between Alaska and Mexico. Females build cup nests about 1.5 inches across with spider silk and plant fibre, incubate typically two pea-sized eggs for two to three weeks, and feed chicks alone until fledging around three weeks. Ruby-throated birds often live three to five years; bee hummingbirds may reach seven to ten.
Their lineage parted from swift relatives near forty-two million years back; Eurotrochilus, the earliest named fossil, is Early Oligocene Europe. Molecular work now sorts them into nine major clades, and Trochilidae ranks third among bird families by species count. Richness peaks in the northern Andes—Colombia holds more than 160 species, Ecuador about 130—while the United States has recorded fewer than 25. As of 2026 the IUCN lists eight critically endangered and thirteen endangered species; about 255 are declining. Sunbirds and hummingbird hawk-moths look similar through convergent evolution, not kinship.
Source: Hummingbird
