hummingbird

There are over 300 kinds of hummingbirds in the world, which come in every color of the rainbow. The smallest is the bee hummingbird from Cuba—the smallest bird in the world. It is only two inches long and weighs less than a dime at .07 ounces. The largest is the giant hummingbird that can reach a whopping eight inches in length.

Even though hummingbirds are small in size, they have enormous appetites. Hummingbirds feed often and must consume more than their body weight in food each day. (I would have to eat more than 160 pounds of food a day to do that!) In order to obtain enough nectar, they feed every 10 or 15 minutes from dawn until dusk. Hummingbirds consume between four and seven calories a day. That may not seem like much, but if humans (who normally eat 3,500 calories a day) had the metabolism of a hummingbird, they would have to consume approximately 155,000 calories a day! The hummingbird’s copious need for calories is because of their extremely high heart rate and metabolism. 

Hummingbirds are not very social animals, which is why you never see them flying in flocks. In fact, males and females live apart until breeding season. After mating, the female is on her own to build the nest and raise her young. The females usually lay one or two very tiny eggs about the size of a pinto bean. When they hatch out, these tiny babies are very vulnerable to predators, including large insects! 

When it comes to flying, nobody does it better than a hummingbird. Like a helicopter, it can go up, down, sideways, backwards, and even upside down! This is because most of its wing is made of hand bones instead of arm bones like other birds. The ruby-throated hummingbird, for example, is reported to have a wing rate of 70 beats per second, or 4,200 per minute. Hummingbirds are such good fliers that most of them never walk more than two inches, and they can terrorize birds 10 times their own size with their acrobatic skill. Hummingbirds are also amazing hunters of insects, frequently plucking mosquitoes, gnats, and fruit flies right out of the air while hovering. 

Did you know that the Bible teaches that angels do not travel at the speed of sound or even at the speed of light but rather at the speed of thought? The angel Gabriel came to Daniel from heaven while he was still praying! 

"Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation." Daniel 9:21

-doug batchelor