Hummingbird in 1550s: Sahagún notes
[37] [hummingbird-1-37] The shoulder allows a nearly horizontal figure-eight. Lift on the upstroke as well as the downstroke pays the A specimen label at a natural history museum records where and when, not which animal is more valuable. For Hummingbird, write 1550s, “Sahagún notes,” and 360, and leave league tables off the card. Ruby-throated hummingbirds fatten, then fly 800+ km nonstop. Tailwin
The shoulder allows a nearly horizontal figure-eight. Lift on the upstroke as well as the downstroke pays the hover bill that a typical avian stroke 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? 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.1550s
Figures to keep
- Year of the note
- 1550s
- Figure to keep
- 360
- Species
- Hummingbird
- Line in the log
- Sahagún notes