A Mighty Flyer

What is two inches tall, can hover in mid-air, and fly in every direction including backwards? It’s not an insect. The answer is the bee hummingbird. Most hummingbirds are about three to five inches long. But the bee hummingbird is only five centimetres, or approximately two inches, making it the smallest species of birds alive today. It isn’t bigger than a large insect. But don’t let its tiny body fool you. This bird is a fierce flier. It can beat its wings up to 80 times per second. If you ever see one in flight, you’ll notice its wings are just a blur to the human eye. Hummingbirds are also the only vertebrates that can hover in one place. Add to that being able to fly backwards and upside down, and these creatures are amazing flying machines.

And being a master flier isn’t the only one of the bee hummingbird’s talents. The bee hummingbird does a great job performing its part in plant reproduction. During a single day, the bee hummingbird can visit up to 1,500 flowers. And just like a bee, when the bee hummingbird drinks nectar from the flowers, pollen is transferred from the flower to the bird’s body. This pollen is carried to the next flower. Transferring pollen from one flower to another helps them make seeds. Besides drinking nectar, bee hummingbirds eat insects. They eat about half their body mass each day. But what’s more impressive is that they drink eight times their body mass every day. Therefore, they live in areas where there are gardens and shrubbery. These tiny birds are found primarily in Cuba, but some have been spotted in Jamaica and Haiti as well. Despite its size, there’s no arguing that the bee hummingbird is a mighty flier.