Bee Hummingbird

BirdNote^®

Sizing Up the World’s Smallest Bird

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.

Cuba is home to unique warblers, hawks, and other birds found nowhere else – including one species that takes the prize for the world’s smallest bird. 

Your best bet for tracking down the tiny wonder is along a forest edge hung heavily with vines and bromeliads. There, hovering at the flowers — if you squint hard enough — you’ll find the Bee Hummingbird.

    [Bee Hummingbird calls, ML 121909]

The Bee Hummingbird is an absolute miniature, even among hummingbirds. It measures a mere two and a quarter inches long. Bee Hummingbirds are often mistaken for bees. They weigh less than two grams — less than a dime. That’s half the weight of other common hummers, like the Ruby-throated or Rufous. The female builds a nest barely an inch across and her eggs are about the size of a coffee bean.

    [Bee Hummingbird calls, ML 121909]

In flight, the Bee Hummingbird’s tiny wings beat 80 times a second. And during a courtship flight, they beat up to 200 times per second! The male’s entire head and throat shine in fiery pinkish-red, and blazing red feathers point like spikes down the sides of the breast. 

A sight to behold!

For BirdNote, I’m Mary McCann.

   ###
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. 121909 recorded by Gregory F Budney.
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Managing Producer: Jason Saul
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
© 2017 Tune In to Nature.org  September 2017/2019 / May 2023

Narrator: Mary McCann

ID#         BEEH-01b-2020-9-16                BEEH-01b

http://eol.org/pages/914480/details 
http://www.arkive.org/bee-hummingbird/mellisuga-helenae/

A sight to behold!
 
The Bee Hummingbird, found only in Cuba, is the smallest bird in the world. An absolute miniature, even among hummingbirds, it measures only two and a quarter inches long. Often mistaken for bees, they weigh less than a dime. The female builds a nest barely an inch across, and lays eggs about the size of a coffee bean.