Hummingbirds | Teen Ink

Hummingbirds

June 14, 2017
By _.tayler._julian SILVER, Williamstown, Kentucky
_.tayler._julian SILVER, Williamstown, Kentucky
5 articles 3 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
You can never cross the ocean unless you have courage to loose sight of the shore.


There are hundreds of different kind of birds; Blue birds, Woodpeckers, and Cardinals. These are all cool birds, but humming birds are the best to learn about. They have the fastest heart rate than any other creature, there are different types of humming birds, and they consume more than one type of nectar from more than one type of plant. It's just so fascinating!


Although their hearts are small, they are still very mighty. It can be beating at about 1260 beats per minute (bpm) and slow down to about 50 bpm. That’s just the average 7.5-13 centimeter bird, imagine if the bird was twice its size. As you saw before the hummingbirds heart rate could get up to about 1260 bpm. This is crazy fast compared to other living creatures' heart rate. Their heart rate is probably faster than how fast their wings flutter. Their wings flutter about 1 million times a day.


Even though there are many people who think there is only one type of hummingbirds or hummingbirds are just not important, there are many types and uses of hummingbirds. Three types of hummingbirds are; the Calypte Anna, the Calypte Costae, and the Stellula Calliope. The Calypte Anna has no negative impacts on the economy. They live in costal Texas and Louisiana. They have been expanding their population since 1950. The Calypte Costae is no threat to our economy. They are mostly found in southern California, then in the fall and winter they migrate east toward Texas, and Louisiana. Finally, the Stellula Calliope, of course, like you would suspect has no affect on our economy. They are found where you find the spring bloom, because they abide with the spring bloom.


Nesting arrangements might be different depending what kind of bird it is. For instance, the Calypte Anna females nest in yards, chaparral thickets, wooden canyons, and low, wooden slopes, often choosing groves over live oaks. The Calypte Costae's is able to withstand extreme desert conditions. So, they can nest in urban districts. Now it's to the last hummingbird, the Stellula Calliope. This bird is able to nest at the edges of mountain streams, and adjacent to glace and meadows, in the pines, alders, and other confiners. The Stellula Calliope Hummingbird is the one bird out of the three that migrates a lot. They all eat different types of nectar, or so you think.


Most likely you are thinking, one kind of nectar plant. But, there are actually five different plants. One of them is a shrub, or a bush. Some shrubs that a hummingbird might get nectar from are; the Beauty bush, the butterfly bush, Orange bush monkey flowers, red bush money flowers, Salmon bush monkey flowers, and the hibiscus. Another plant is the perennial flowers. These flowers are supposed to live for a few years before they die off. Some examples of perennials are; Aloe, Daylily, Fuchsia, and the century plant. The Century plant has a good name. This is because perennials are meant to live a long time and a century is a long time. So, I think it all ties in together.


Out of the two plants with nectar and the three types of humming birds, all of the birds consume nectar from the same type of plant. You see if I took some information about hummingbirds on the east side of the United States, I most likely would have gotten different results.


There are just a few facts that I think should be known. First of all, Hummingbirds were originally located in Europe. But, the Spanish explorers discovered them and called them many different names. One of them was, aves varias "many-colored birds". Another name that they called them is joyas voladores "Flying jewels".With plants and humming birds, it's a win-win situation. The bird gets the nurturance it needs when it consumes the nectar, and the plant gets pollinated.


So, there are a lot of types of humming birds, they have a remarkable talent when it comes to their heart rate, some birds eat form different plants. Hummingbirds are so significant!



Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.