Many earlier studies had assumed that lift was generated equally during the two phases of the wingbeat cycle, as is the case of insects of a similar size. The giant hummingbird's wings beat as few as 12 times per second, [150] and the wings of typical hummingbirds beat up to 80 times per second. It has been shown that floral abundance (but not floral diversity) influences hummingbird diversity, but that arthropod abundance does not (i. Rock band The Cure released The Top album in 1984, named, and at least partially inspired, by the toy of the same name. Umunhum in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Northern California is Ohlone for "resting place of the hummingbird".

In fact, it has been suggested that the majority of non-caloric nutritional needs of hummingbirds are met by insectivory, but nectars do contain appreciable quantities of certain vitamins and minerals.Resource defense and monopolization in a marked population of ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris)". To launch the Humming Top in a certain horizontal direction, press left/right on when pressing the R Button. During turbulent airflow conditions created experimentally in a wind tunnel, hummingbirds exhibit stable head positions and orientation when they hover at a feeder.

Hummingbirds have varied specialized characteristics to enable rapid, maneuverable flight, exceptional metabolic capacity, adaptations to high altitude, sensitive visual and communication abilities, and long-distance migration in some species.Iridescent hummingbird colors result from a combination of refraction and pigmentation, since the diffraction structures themselves are made of melanin, a pigment, [4] [67] and may also be colored by carotenoid pigmentation and more subdued black, brown or gray colors dependent on melanin. Hummingbirds arrest their kidneys at night: diel variation in glomerular filtration rate in Selasphorus platycercus".

The rufous hummingbird breeds farther north than any other species of hummingbird, spending summers along coastal British Columbia and Alaska, and wintering in the southwestern United States and Mexico, [170] with some distributed along the coasts of the subtropical Gulf of Mexico and Florida. As the smallest living birds, hummingbirds are relatively limited at conserving heat energy, and are generally unable to maintain a presence in higher latitudes during winter months, unless the specific location has a large food supply throughout the year, particularly access to flower nectar.Two white eggs are laid, [23] [140] which despite being the smallest of all bird eggs, are large relative to the adult hummingbird's size.