by oakridgefeed
Do you love those sometimes elusive, beautiful, and quick moving birds that visit your nectar feeders every year? If you want to learn more about them, check out 10 interesting facts you should know about hummingbirds.
#10 : Hummingbirds consume twice their body weight in nectar every day.
#9 : Hummingbirds are very territorial and guard your feeder. Since they need so much food (fuel) and starve easily, they will protect the food sources that they find.
#8. Hummingbirds’ beaks have adapted to the types of flowers they feed from. Some species have short bills, where others have long bills to enable to feed from deep flowers.
#7. Although hummingbirds will feed from flowers of any color, they are drawn to red, orange, and bright pink flowers. These flowers contain high levels of sucrose, rather than glucose or fructose.
#6. A hummingbird’s wings can beat up to 100 times per second.
#5. A hummingbird will shake like a dog to remove rain from their bodies while they are flying.
#4. While in flight, hummingbirds have the highest metabolism of any animal (excluding insects).
#3. Hummingbirds can use sugar to power 100% of their metabolic needs. Humans can only power 30% of our needs with sugar!
#2. Average North American Hummingbirds will live 3-5 years. The longest recorded lifespan of a Hummingbird was 12 years.
#1. Ruby Throated Hummingbirds migrate from Mexico to Ontario!
source : Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird)