A couple of weeks ago, someone told me that if a hummingbird stops flying, it will die. Then, this weekend in East Texas, I got a chance to see a bunch of hummingbirds at a friend’s house. They were flying around different feeders and the occasional squirrel would attempt to steal the hanging nectar dispensers.

Hummingbird – Original Picture (here)
From Noël Zia Lee’s photostream  (here)

Since I wasn’t sure what would happen if a hummingbird stopped flying, I looked up some hummingbird facts and found an informative video clip from the BBC.

Hummingbirds do not spend all day flying, as the energy cost would be prohibitive; the majority of their activity consists simply of sitting or perching. Hummingbirds feed in many small meals, consuming many small invertebrates and up to five times their own body weight in nectar each day. They spend an average of 10-15% of their time feeding and 75-80% sitting and digesting.

Hummingbirds feed on the nectar of plants and are important pollinators, especially of deep-throated, tubular flowers. Like bees, they are able to assess the amount of sugar in the nectar they eat; they reject flower types that produce nectar which is less than 10% sugar and prefer those whose sugar content is stronger. Nectar is a poor source of nutrients, so hummingbirds meet their needs for protein, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, etc. by preying on insects and spiders, especially when feeding young. Source – Wikipedia

BBC Hummingbird Video (1:30) – Youtube Video (Here)

If you feed the hummingbirds, they will continue to visit.

Filed under: Fun stuff