Tiny, Shiny Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds were called “glittering fragments of the rainbow” by the famous bird artist John Audubon. They are some of the only birds in the world with so many superbright, shiny colors.
As hummingbirds flit around this summer, The Mini Page learns more about these amazing birds.
Colorful creatures
Hummingbirds get some of their colors from pigments, or chemical colors, just like most birds do. These pigments always show the same color.
For example, a blue jay is always blue, no matter how the light hits its feathers.
But the hummingbird’s brightest colors come from the way its feathers are made. Tiny layers of feather cells break the light into brilliant colors, just as water breaks light into a rainbow. Unless the light hits the bird just right, you can’t see the bright colors at all. The bird just looks dark.
A colorful strategy
The ability to display colors when they want is a great help to hummingbirds. A male flashes his bright colors to attract a female or scare off an enemy. Even a hawk can be scared off if it sees a sudden burst of color. Many females have white tips on their tail feathers. Although most females are not as brightly colored as males, they often flash their white-tipped tail feathers to scare off enemies.
Small ...
Hummingbirds need these defensive tools partly because of their size.
Hummingbirds are so tiny that one of their enemies is an insect, the praying mantis. The smallest bird on Earth is the Cuban bee hummingbird. It is less than 2 inches long from the tip of its beak to the tip of its tail. It weighs about 6/100 of an ounce.
... but mighty!
Hummingbirds get their name from the hum created by the superfast beat of their wings. The smallest ones beat their wings the fastest, up to 80 times per second. Their wings beat so fast that people see only a blur. A hummingbird’s flight muscles make up about one-third of its weight, a bigger amount than in any other bird. They are the only birds that can fly backward, upside down or sideways for more than a few seconds.
They are so good at flying that most don’t ever walk. They use their feet only to perch. Even when they are just changing position on a branch, they fly.