Global InformationHummingbird information
| Hummingbird Temporal range: Rupelian
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| Four hummingbirds from Trinidad and Tobago | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Clade: | Strisores |
| Order: | Apodiformes |
| Family: | Trochilidae Vigors, 1825 |
| Type genus | |
| Trochilus Linnaeus, 1758
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| Subfamilies | |
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Subfamiles:
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Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genera,[1] they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Central and South America.[2] As of 2024, 21 hummingbird species are listed as endangered or critically endangered, with numerous species declining in population.[3][4]
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. Among all birds, male hummingbirds have the widest diversity of plumage color, particularly in blues, greens, and purples.[5] Hummingbirds are the smallest mature birds, measuring 7.5–13 cm (3–5 in) in length. The smallest is the 5 cm (2.0 in) bee hummingbird, which weighs less than 2.0 g (0.07 oz), and the largest is the 23 cm (9 in) giant hummingbird, weighing 18–24 grams (0.63–0.85 oz). Noted for long beaks, hummingbirds are specialized for feeding on flower nectar, but all species also consume small insects.
They are known as hummingbirds because of the humming sound created by their beating wings, which flap at high frequencies audible to other birds and humans. They hover at rapid wing-flapping rates, which vary from around 12 beats per second in the largest species to 80 per second in small hummingbirds.
Hummingbirds have the highest mass-specific metabolic rate of any homeothermic animal.[6][7] To conserve energy when food is scarce and at night when not foraging, they can enter torpor, a state similar to hibernation, and slow their metabolic rate to 1⁄15 of its normal rate.[7][8] While most hummingbirds do not migrate, the rufous hummingbird has one of the longest migrations among birds, traveling twice per year between Alaska and Mexico, a distance of about 3,900 miles (6,300 km).
Hummingbirds split from their sister group, the swifts and treeswifts, around 42 million years ago.[9] The oldest known fossil hummingbird is Eurotrochilus, from the Rupelian Stage of Early Oligocene Europe.[10]
- ^ Gill, F.; Donsker, D.; Rasmussen, P. (29 January 2023). "IOC World Bird List (v 13.2), International Ornithological Committee". IOC World Bird List. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
- ^ Stonich, Kathryn (26 April 2021). "Hummingbirds of the United States: A Photo List of All Species". American Bird Conservancy. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
- ^ "Hummingbird (search)". International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
- ^ English, Simon G.; Bishop, Christine A.; Wilson, Scott; Smith, Adam C. (15 September 2021). "Current contrasting population trends among North American hummingbirds". Scientific Reports. 11 (1): 18369. Bibcode:2021NatSR..1118369E. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-97889-x. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 8443710. PMID 34526619.
- ^ Venable, G.X.; Gahm, K.; Prum, R.O. (June 2022). "Hummingbird plumage color diversity exceeds the known gamut of all other birds". Communications Biology. 5 (1): 576. doi:10.1038/s42003-022-03518-2. PMC 9226176. PMID 35739263.
- ^ Suarez, R.K. (1992). "Hummingbird flight: Sustaining the highest mass-specific metabolic rates among vertebrates". Experientia. 48 (6): 565–570. doi:10.1007/bf01920240. PMID 1612136. S2CID 21328995.
- ^ a b Hargrove, J.L. (2005). "Adipose energy stores, physical work, and the metabolic syndrome: Lessons from hummingbirds". Nutrition Journal. 4: 36. doi:10.1186/1475-2891-4-36. PMC 1325055. PMID 16351726.
- ^ "Hummingbirds". Migratory Bird Center, Smithsonian National Zoological Park. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
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