Hummingbird · New World nectar specialists that hover on figure-eight wings and migrate on a few grams of fat.
Icons here are not a ranking of living animals as best. They are the Wikipedia-titled faces a later chapter can attach images to.
Stats are relative 0-100 marks inside this type, for comparison on the page, not a global scoreboard.
jeffreyw · CC BY 2.0
Gulf of Mexico migrant on a few grams of fat.
Ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris, Eastern North America) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
Robert McMorran, United States Fish and Wildlife Service · Public domain
Urban winterer that expanded with gardens and eucalyptus.
Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna, Pacific coast) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
Andy Morffew from Itchen Abbas, Hampshire, UK · CC BY 2.0
Bill longer than the body rest — Datura specialist.
Sword-billed hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera, Andes) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0
Smallest living bird; coastal scrub endemic.
Bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae, Cuba) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
Unknown author · CC BY 4.0
Monographs that made hummingbirds a Victorian visual craze.
John Gould (1804–1881, United Kingdom) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
Life-history notes from Costa Rican forest that still ground field guides.
Alexander Skutch (1904–2004, Costa Rica / US) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
DuPont executive whose high-speed photos resolved the stroke.
Crawford Greenewalt (1902–1993, United States) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
Nate Lee · CC BY-SA 4.0
Wind-tunnel and specimen work on trochilid power and iridescence.
Smithsonian NMNH (hover research, United States) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
Stats are relative 0–100 marks within this species, for comparison only.
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Sugar water is visible help. Gulf-coast stopover habitat is the crossing’s real fuel depot.
Range expansion looks like a win. It also tracks ornamental planting and a milder coast, not a restored wild nectar grid.
Apex diurnal raptors whose stoops, territories and national emblems stretch from taiga cliffs to tropical canopy.
Overall 75 🦉Nocturnal raptors whose facial discs, silent flight and asymmetric ears turn darkness into a hunting map.
Overall 72 🐧Flightless southern divers that turned wings into flippers and ice edges into commute routes.
Overall 56 🦩Long-legged filter feeders whose bent bills and carotenoid diets turn alkaline lakes into pink cities.
Overall 52 🦜Zygodactyl hookbills whose social brains, mimicry and nest-cavity needs collide with the cage trade.
Overall 58 🪽Dynamic-soaring ocean birds whose metres-long wings and baited longlines now share the same latitudes.
Overall 58 🦢Tall wetland dancers whose red-crowned East Asian population is the atlas type and a conservation bottleneck.
Overall 53