Hummingbirds are the most distinctive of all the bird families. From the tip of its saber-like bill to its tiny perching feet, hummingbirds are unusual in every way. No other bird is endowed with so many unique traits. The smallest species, Cuban bee hummingbird, is tiniest bird in world, measuring just over two inches (5 cm) long and weighing less than two grams. In contrast, the largest member of the family, the giant hummingbird, is about 7.5 inches (19 cm) long and weighs 20 grams.

As one of the smallest of nature's warm-blooded animals, hummingbirds must work hard to survive. Like an engine of a high performance racecar, hummingbirds are powerful and fast, running at efficiently hot temperature of 40� C. It's heart can pump up to a staggering 1260 beats per minute, more than 125 times faster than the human heart. It's wings, driven by it's powerful chest muscles, account for than 30% of the hummingbird's total body weight and are the biggest among all birds, beating in a blur of 50 to 200 times per second. Even a hummingbird's slowest cruising speed, 56 km/h, breaks the average speed limit in most cities.

To fuel the hummingbird's full-burn lifestyle, hummingbirds must devour half it's weight in food each day without gaining an ounce. It conserves precious excess energy by routinely falling into torpor each night. Torpors are when the hummingbird's body temperature drops and its heart rate slows, so it is able to conserve its energy until morning. Hummingbirds in torpor can be so still and silent, they can appear to be dead. Hummingbirds choose to become torpid when they are extremely hungry, tired, or cold.

This dormant state saves the hummingbird's energy without completely shutting down its system.

Adult male: They have an emerald green back, an iridescent ruby red throat that may appear to be black under some lighting conditions, grey flanks, and a forked tail with no white. It is also smaller than the female.

Adult female: They also have an emerald green back, a white breast and throat, and a rounded tail with white tips. They are larger than the male, and they have a longer bill.

Juveniles: Young hummers of both genders look like adult female hummers. In August and September, young males may develop some red spots in their throat.

A Hummingbird's meticulously designed and constructed nest is the foremost place to lay eggs but also provides a warm place to sleep at night, and a safe, sheltered haven for raising young. Female hummingbirds are family architects, taking anywhere from two days to two weeks to complete the structure. Like all wild creatures, hummingbirds build their nest to suit their surroundings, using whatever materials that are at hand-plant stems, twigs, moss, lichens, and plant down. The most common style of a hummer's nest is an open cup-shape that can house two eggs and the mother bird. The pendulous nest, that is a tapered cone-like structure is attached to the broad blade-shaped leaf that forms the inner wall. Nests of different hummingbird species are variations on a theme. They are compact, insulated, and camouflaged little incubators for a hummingbird's eggs.

A well-built nest offers protection against enemies and preserves a hummers' necessary body heat to incubate tiny eggs. Ruby-throated hummingbirds are one of the five hummingbird species that breed in Canada and one of most widely distributed hummingbirds in world.

Each year it flies over 960 km of open water, across the Gulf of Mexico, a route from their winter home in Central America to their summer breeding grounds in the North. To solve hummer's life-threatening problem of heat loss during cool northern nights, the hummingbird pads the walls of the nest with a thick layer of fluffy down gathered from plants like milkweed and dandelion.

Hummingbirds are the smallest birds in world, so they build the smallest and most vulnerable nests. Their nests are 2.5 cm deep and are less than 5 cm in diameter.

The most striking feature of a hummingbird's nest is its camouflage. Hummingbirds position and design their nest to blend into the surrounding landscape. When the basic structure of the nest is complete, the exterior is decorated with colourful fragments of lichen & moss that not only adds to beauty, but also renders it invisible amid vegetation where placed.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds breed during the spring and summer, in concert with the warm weather and supply of nectar. For hummingbirds, eggs demand a lot of energy. Most bird eggs represent less than 5 percent of the female bird's weight. Consider the ostrich, which lays the largest eggs among birds. Even though the eggs are 16� cm long and weigh a little more than 3 pounds, this giant among bird eggs represents less than 2 percent of the ostrich's total weight. The largest hummingbird egg laid by giant hummingbird is no bigger than an oversized jellybean, though each of these eggs account for anywhere between 10 to 20 percent of the hummer's total weight.

Hummers eat the pollen and nectar in flowers. There are an estimated 80 types of flowers on a hummer's menu.

Spring is a busy time for the ruby-throated hummingbird. It begins with the gigantic job of building a tiny, tiny nest. The female hummer builds it by stitching the walls together with spider silk, and gluing them with saliva. They also stamp soft, cottony down into the lining of the nest with its feet. Then the hummer adds lichen and moss to the outside as a camouflage. The completed hummer's nest is as big as half of a ping-pong ball. A single penny fits into the nest.

After the nest is ready, the female hummer sets off in search of a mate. When she finds one, he performs a dazzling aerial display. Hummers always face the sun during performances, because they want to show off their glittery, shimmering feathers in the best light. Not much mating is done on cloudy days. Mating lasts from 3-5 seconds, then the birds go their separate ways. The male resumes its busy day's work, while the female zips back to its nest.

Hummingbirds lay 2 very tiny eggs each time. Each of the hummer's eggs weigh less than � of a gram. You could mail 60 eggs with one postage stamp! The female hummer sits on the eggs to keep them warm until each of them hatches, 15-20 days later. The expectant mother settles in, like a perfect lid on a perfect pot. The newborn hummers look like raisins with a thin cover of downy feathers along their backs. At first, the hatchlings are fed every 3 minutes.

Twelve days after the hummers are born, they are covered with feathers. Another week later, they are flapping their incompletely developed wings. Soon the chicks begin to practice flying by hanging onto the rim of the nest and humming their wings. By day 30, they are ready to fly. At this point, the mother's job is done. They may check on their young a few more times, but soon the chicks are ready to begin their solitary life-while the mother raises a new brood...

Summer is a hectic time in the lives of hummingbirds. They need so much energy that they sip nectar from up to 3000 flowers a day. For us, that would be drinking more than 500 cups of juice a day! That's roughly eight times their body weight!

Hummers can't smell, so they depend on their eyesight when they are selecting flowers. Hummers especially love red, tube-shaped blossoms. They also gobble up insects from spider webs. Sometimes they even eat the spider!

Hummers also work at staying clean. They bathe in tiny puddles on leaves or soak in a rain shower or a lawn sprinkler. Hummers love to bathe on leaves. After splashing about, hummingbirds groom and preen their feathers, feet and beaks. They also love to sunbathe. They face the sun, fluff out their feathers, and bask in the warmth. Sunbathing is an unusually peaceful time for the energetic bird.

Once a hummingbird finds an area with lots of food, it claims the territory. No visitors allowed. If a creature intrudes, the hummer will puff out it's chest, spread out its tail, and toss its head about. This usually is enough to frighten off the intruder. If that doesn't work, it will chase and attack the trespasser no matter who it is, cat, crow, or one of u and me.

Sometimes hummingbirds fight with each other like tiny swordsmen. Although they aren't friendly, hummingbirds have only a few enemies. Some frogs and large fish have been known to leap up, catch a hummingbird, and attempt to pull it underwater...

Fall may be the busiest time for hummingbird. This is the time when hummers migrate south for the winter. As soon as it gets cold, ruby-throated hummers take off for Mexico or South and Central America, where they will spend the winter. Hummers begin flying solo for several days until they reach Florida. There, they fatten up and wait for good weather to begin the last part of their journey...

Hummers are experts at predicting the weather. They leave Florida when there is a steady northwesterly wind, clear skies, and no hint of a storm coming. The tiny birds' wings beat very fast. Then they set across Gulf of Mexico, skimming low over the waves. The trip will take about 25 miles per hour for 25 hours. For a long time, no one believed that such a small bird could survive the long and difficult journey without help.

Some people thought that hummers hitched a ride on the back of a Canada goose. That's a lovely idea, but it's not true.

Besides the occasional fishing boat, the only place to rest is on a hot air balloon. Sometimes balloonists hang feeders from their basket to give the tired voyager a much-appreciated snack. The tiny bird keeps going, even after the sun sets, and the moon hangs over the hummer...

Winter also an active time in the lives of the hummingbird, but hummers begin slowly. The first thing hummers do after the long, exhausting journey across the Gulf is rest. Some hummingbirds enter torpor when they are going to sleep. Hummers choose to become torpid when they are extremely hungry, tired, or cold. During the torpor, the hummers body temperature drops and heart rate slows, and able to conserve energy till morning. Hummingbirds in torpor can be so still and silent, they can appear to be dead. In the past, lots of people believed hummingbirds had magical powers that allowed them to die, and then come back to life.

Once the hummer is well rested, it must eat. After a couple of days of resting and feeding, hummingbirds take off in search of their winter homes. Some will journey very far south, in search of a home. Others find a nearby patch of woodland, and settle in. Some hummers choose to live at the edge of a farm or on the grounds of a plantation.

A number of especially adventurous hummingbirds will travel deep into the jungle. All of them must find a territory with plenty of food, yet not yet claimed by another bird. The hummer will spend an action-packed 5 months defending their territory, zipping from flower to flower, bathing, preening, and sunbathing (if there is any sunlight) before heading back to north America for another busy year...

Plant a hummingbird's favourite flowers in a container or a window box, or in your garden, and they will visit your home!

Hummers are attracted to red flowers, so start off with a few of these flowers:

Once the hummers have discovered your red flowers, they will happily dine from blossoms of any colour.