colibrì (I)
colibrí (s)
Kolibri (g)
beija Flor, colibri (P)
hummingbird (e)
only in the western hemisphere
How could there not be a post about the hummingbird, this blog’s logo? Hummingbirds are members of the Trochilidae family and there about 363 species of them. Of those, about 30 species are endangered. Most don’t migrate, but the Rufous hummingbird, source of your host’s nom de plume or pen name, completes one of the longest migrations of any bird, traveling from Alaska to Mexico and back. You won’t find hummingbirds in Europe or Asia as they only inhabit the Western hemisphere. Almost half of the world’s hummingbird species make their home in the country of Ecuador.
By VJAnderson – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83583087
They are the smallest of all of earth’s warm-blooded animals, yet they can eat half of their body weight in food every day. How small are they? Well, the smallest, the bee hummingbird, is only 2.5 inches long and weighs less than a tenth of an ounce. The largest hummingbirds might weigh close to an ounce. They need all that nourishment as they have the fastest wingbeats and heartbeat of any bird. (12 to 80 wingbeats per second!) Those wingbeats are what creates their hum. According to the description of the cocktail, the Rummingbird, served at the famous Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London, hummingbirds love the hibiscus flower. Only hummingbirds can fly backward, straight up and straight down. Have you ever been on a deck or balcony and suddenly found yourself face to face with a hovering hummingbird? You may have felt a bit like the bad guys in the 1994 movie True Lies when Harry Tasker (aka Arnold Schwarzenegger) flies his Harrier jet to their floor of the skyscraper and hovers.
Hummingbirds do not have knees and their feet have three toes facing forward and one pointing backward. Who knew? Some hummingbird species have been measured flying as fast as 34 miles per hour and some males, in order to impress a potential female mate, dive from a height of 100 feet at a speed of 51 miles per hour. Of course, what really amazes people about hummingbirds is their colors. They are incredible: purples, greens, oranges, and even rainbow hued. A recent 2022 study from Yale University determined that hummingbirds boast more colors than the rest of the bird world combined.
What’s the link between hummingbirds and the Rolling Stones rock band? No, not brightly colored plumage. It’s the Gibson Hummingbird, an acoustic, square shouldered guitar first produced by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1960 and still in production today. It’s a top-of-the-line guitar for singer-songwriters. Search the Internet and you’ll find lots of pictures of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger writing songs and practicing with a Gibson Hummingbird. A list of songs written by those two using a Gibson Hummingbird is a Rolling Stones greatest hits list. Over the years, Gibson had to sue several companies whose (cheaper) copies of the Hummingbird were a little too close to the original which is a beautiful instrument.
