Hummingbird
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Living things like orchids, hummingbirds, and the peacock's tail have abstract designs with a beauty of form, pattern and colour that artists struggle to match." --Sholem Stein |
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Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and constituting the biological family Trochilidae. They are the smallest of birds, most species measuring Template:Convert in length. The smallest extant bird species is the Template:Convert bee hummingbird, which weighs less than Template:Convert.
They are known as hummingbirds because of the humming sound created by their beating wings, which flap at high frequencies audible to humans. They hover in mid-air at rapid wing-flapping rates, which vary from around 12 beats per second in the largest species, to in excess of 80 in some of the smallest. Of those species that have been measured in wind tunnels, their top speeds exceed Template:Convert and some species can dive at speeds in excess of Template:Convert.
See also
- AeroVironment Nano Hummingbird – artificial hummingbird
- Macroglossum stellatarum – hummingbird hawk-moth
- Hemaris – sphinx moths (hummingbird moths) confused with hummingbirds
