Stan Tekiela - Hummingbirds: Marvels of the Bird World

Cover photos by Stan Tekiela

All photos by Stan Tekiela except pp. 25 by

Edited by Sandy Livoti and Brett Ortler

Cover and book design by Jonathan Norberg

Range maps produced by Anthony Hertzel and Jonathan Norberg

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Hummingbirds: Marvels of the Bird World

First Edition 2010 (entitled Amazing Hummingbirds)

Second Edition 2022

Copyright 2010 and 2022 by Stan Tekiela

Published by Adventure Publications

An imprint of AdventureKEEN

310 Garfield Street South

Cambridge, Minnesota 55008

(800) 678-7006

www.adventurepublications.net

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 978-1-64755-246-6 (pbk.); 978-1-64755-247-3 (ebook)

Dedication

Dedicated to my father, a man of strength who loved little tiny birds

Broad-tailed Hummingbird

Amazing hummingbirds

As far back as I can remember, I have loved all birds. However, if I had to come up with a list of my favoritesthe fantastic birds that have found their way deep into my hearthummingbirds would occupy a prominent spot at the top. Their tiny size, giant personalities, amazing colors and mind-boggling ability of flight are just a few characteristics that draw me to hummers as a naturalist and photographer. After more than 30 years of photographing and studying these miniature marvels, here is their incredible story.

Enjoy the Hummingbirds!

Stan Tekiela

female Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The hummingbird family

Biologists who study birds, called ornithologists, group similar birds into families. The hummingbird family, known as Trochilidae, includes more than 350 species. Compared with the other bird families, this one is huge! It is the second largest in size after the flycatcher family, which has around 400 species.

Hummingbirds are New World birds found only in North, Central and South America. These tiny flying jewels were unknown to European science until settlement, and the wide variety of hummers must have mystified the early ornithologists. Even today, its not clear why there are so many different species of hummingbirds.

The Trochilidae family is divided into six subfamilies. Hermit hummingbirds belong to the Phaethornithinae subfamily. They live in the tropical lowlands of southern Mexico and range down into South America. Hermit hummers have large down-curved bills and tend to be relatively drab in color.

Tropical hummingbirds are members of the Trochilinae subfamily. The majority of all hummingbirds, including all species in the United States and Canada, belong to this subfamily. With their wide variety of sizes and colors, long or short bills and conspicuous, colorful males, they appear more like what we consider to be typical hummingbirds.

female Black-chinned Hummingbird

None so fair

North American hummingbirds are some of the most easily recognized birds and are characterized by many unique features. These petite treasures are well known for their specialized, brightly colored, sparkly feathers, which refract sunlight almost like a prism. Unlike most other birds, hummers enjoy a distinctive diet of nectar liberally seasoned with minute insects. For sipping their sweet drinks, they sport a long, narrow bill that slips easily into flowers and nectar feeders.

They are very fast, agile flyers and the only birds that truly hover in flight. Many birds can remain stationary, or hover, for a few wing beats if they have a good headwind, but they cannot sustain their hover like a hummingbird. Incredibly, hummers can also fly backward! They are the only birds that can also fly straight up and down, side to side and even flip around in an aerial somersault. The key to all of this fantastic flight is their size and weight.

female Ruby-throated Hummingbird

A good name

Some birds have misleading names. Red-bellied Woodpeckers, for example, dont have a noticeable red belly. They have just a slight red blush that is easily missed unless you are nearby and viewing the bird from underneath.

Few birds are as well named as the hummingbird. Just listen for the humming sound youll hear as they fly by and you will understand the reason for the distinctive name. The sound, however, is not made with the vocal chords. Its actually created by the wings, which flap incredibly fast. Hummer wings move so much air so quickly that audible reverberation is produced.

A Ruby-throated Hummingbird flaps its wings 7080 times per second during regular flight. The extraordinary speed of the wing beats makes it difficult to photograph a hummer in flight, freezing it in time. This image shows flight movement captured in less than a hundred-thousandth of a second. During specialized courtship flights, a Ruby-throat will flap up to a tremendous 200 times per second! Try doing anything 200 times in less than 60 seconds and youll agree that these birds are beyond amazing.

Broad-billed Hummingbird

Origins of the species

The scientific view of the origin of hummingbirds is murky at best. Because only a few fossils are preserved of these very slight birds, scientists have offered theories. Some think that the ancestors of hummers were insect-eating (insectivorous) tropical birds. As the ancient birds gleaned insects from plant leaves and flowers, some individuals would have discovered nectar deep within the blossoms. Over thousands of years and countless generations, the insect-eating birds came to feed regularly on quick-energy nectar and continued to eat the insects for protein.

Over the same amount of time, the plants would have evolved flowers with long tubular shapes specifically to favor the bills of hummingbirds and exclude other birds with short bills. As a result, cross-pollination occurred when the hummers sampled nectar and unwittingly transported pollen from one flower to another. Over the ensuing thousands of years, hummingbird bills became longer and narrower, affording the birds better access to flower nectar. These events bring us into the present, when hummingbirds with long, narrow bills not only feed on nectar from long tubular flowers, but also eat insects.

Calliope Hummingbird

The worlds smallest bird