A Miracle In Motion

I had so much fun emulating one of my favorite bloggers yesterday I thought I’d do it again!

Today I’m paying a small homage to the amazing writer of the Bird Nation blog, whose wonderfully informative posts combine photographs and lessons into a brilliantly educational read. I’m sure I won’t manage half as well, but I’m so infatuated with her posts I just have to give it a go

And what better bird to do it with than the Anna’s Hummingbird?

Female Anna’s Hummingbird (Image By Celebrate Silence)

These beautiful little birds weigh in at a whopping 3 – 6 grams (0.1 – 0.2 of an ounce for my Imperial readers) and measure 3 – 4 inches long (which actually makes them fairly stocky for a hummingbird)

Their brilliantly patterned green backs and the male’s distinctive iridescent throat patch make these guys an easy spot in the field, if you’re prepared for spotting a business card sized object moving at an average of 60kph (35mph) that is.

And did I mention that’s not their top speed?

These moving miracles have been clocked during breeding displays at over 86kph (55mph). At their size that’s a speed of 385 body lengths per second, making them the fastest bird in the world relative to their size. And just how fast is that in real world math when you do the conversions?

The world’s fastest fighter jet couldn’t even begin to keep up.

These tiny birds with their 60 wingbeats and 20 heartbeats per second have a top speed twice that of the fastest known fighter jet when compared relative to size.

The Incredible Anna’s Hummingbird (Image By Celebrate Silence)

Take that Boeing.

Some cool identification tricks I’ve noticed about these birds over the years include the juvenile males having small speckles of color on the top of their heads. Its pretty hard to tell the females and the young males apart but that trick will always work if they slow down enough to get a decent look. Males of course, are easy to spot thanks to their brilliant pink throat feathers, which wonderfully enough are iridescent appearing black or other colors in different light.

Male Anna’s Hummingbird (Image By Celebrate Silence)

And there is one other fact you have to consider about these beautiful little birds.

They are, in the end, simply gorgeous.