Have students present their pollinator-plant pair to the class. Don't miss the hands-on workshops, curriculum supplements, presentations on current issues, guided field trips, and resource materials. With its needle-like bill it probes tubular flowers for nectar while hovering on wings that beat 55 times per second. If you hang a nectar feeder by a window for close observation, you can see the bird's pulsing heartbeat, a rapid 615 beats per minute. Hummingbirds consume 50 percent of their weight in sugar each day, are attracted to showy flowers such as cardinal flower, bee balm, trumpet vine, morning glory, azalea, columbine and jewelweed.
Hummingbirds also feed on small insects for the protein they provide.
During the hummingbird migration from Central and South America, the sexes travel apart, with the male preceding the female. May. They breed from early May to mid July and lay a clutch of two tiny white eggs, in two different broods and sometimes three. The hummingbird's nest is extraordinarily small, about the size of a quarter, covered with moss, lichens and spider webs and lined with the down of thistle or dandelion. This nest is carefully constructed on the horizontal limb of a tree, usually more than six feet off the ground, and sometimes over water. The sexes remain together for only a few days or until incubation begins.