Hummingbird in : Andean takeoff
[13] [hummingbird-0-13] Do hummingbirds live on sugar water alone? No. Nectar is fuel. Arthropods supply protein, especially for chick A specimen label at a natural history museum records where and when, not which animal is more valuable. For Hummingbird, write , “Andean takeoff,” and 30, and leave league tables off the card. How can a hummingbird hover when other birds cannot?
Do hummingbirds live on sugar water alone? No. Nectar is fuel. Arthropods supply protein, especially for chicks. Feeders that omit insects do not replace a territory. How does a 3-gram bird cross the Gulf of Mexico? Ruby-throated hummingbirds fatten, then fly 800+ km nonstop. Tailwinds and a high mass-specific power output make the crossing possible, not a rest on ships.
A controlled drop in body temperature and metabolic rate overnight. Without it, many species would exhaust nectar stores before sunrise. Diversity peaks in the Andes. Anna’s hummingbirds now winter in Vancouver gardens; ruby-throated breed to southern Canada. Who first illustrated hummingbirds for Europe?
John Gould’s 19th-century monographs and skins made trochilids a Victorian craze — with a collecting cost that modern field work still cites. Why do some species have bills longer than the head? Sword-billed hummingbirds match 10–14 cm bills to Datura and Passiflora corollas — a coevolution exhibit, not an ornament.
The order on the card is year, line, figure. Hummingbird is not sorted by how much visitors like the photo.30
Figures to keep
- Year of the note
- 30
- Figure to keep
- 30
- Species
- Hummingbird
- Line in the log
- Andean takeoff
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