They are the only birds that can hover, fly backward and upside down as easily as they fly forward. Their wings beat 70 times a second while hovering and up to 200 times a second during courtship dives. To accomplish these amazing feats, hummingbird wing muscles are, for their size, larger than those of any other bird species. The hummingbird's brain is 4.2 percent of its total weight, making it proportionately the largest brain in the bird world. A hummer's metabolic rate , the rate at which it uses energy, is the highest of any warm-blooded vertebrate except the shrew.
Hummingbirds consume half their weight in sugars each day.
In migration, they fly 500 miles across the Gulf of Mexico twice each year. Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Home Page. Extract all files and open okhummin.htm in a web browser.