We already knew that hummingbirds are pretty extreme. They are the world's smallest bird, their wings flap at 50 times a second, they have tongues that wrap around their brains like woodpeckers. But that's just the beginning of how these tiny, beautiful creatures push the envelope among bird species, and frankly, among animals.
For example, hummingbirds are the only bird that can fly upside down or backwards. At certain times of the year, they can spend 13 hours a day flying, searching for nectar. They have amazing metabolisms that they can change at will, so that their energy expenditures while sleeping or in winter are barely above what will sustain life. They can fly at altitudes that a helicopter won't attempt. The sugar water they consume causes them to have blood sugar levels six times that of a human, but they've developed ways to deal with that, and with the relatively massive amounts of fluids they consume. How do they do it all? Several scientists who are hummingbird experts have put in the work, and they tell us how it's done at Knowable Magazine. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: Paul Danese)
