H4_W6A_011

Date: 2019

Location: Costa Rica

Did you know?

Also known as the green-fronted brilliant, A Humming bird with varied habitats from 100 m all the way 2,200m in South America, specially in Panama, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Colombia A bird which is only 4.7 to 5.1 in and weighs 10.5 to 12 gms, however is considered as a large Humming in the family of brilliant. Males are entirely emerald green in colour with small blue throat patches only visible at some angles. Humming birds are native to America - both North and South with about 366 species, with the vast majority of hummingbirds found in central and South America. Hummingbirds have varied specialized characteristics to enable rapid, maneuverable flight, exceptional, Metabolism. The three main functions of metabolism are: “the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cellular processes” “the conversion of food to building blocks for proteins, lipids,nucleic acids & some carbohydrates” and The elimination of metabolic wastes

About the picture

The green-crowned brilliant usually forages in the middle and upper strata of the forest. A primary source of nectar is Marcgravia vines, and females also feed at small understory plants. Males sometimes defend Marcgravia patches, though they also nectar by trap-lining, visiting a circuit of flowering plants. The species usually clings to flowers to feed rather than hovering. Humming Birds with wings that flap up to 90 times per second and heart rates exceeding 1,200 beats per minute. They depend on calorie-rich nectar for fuel. They can easily consume their own body weight in the stuff each day; one study described a 3-gram hummingbird drinking 43 grams of sugar water in one day, a full 14 times its body weight.

Fun Fact

Humming Birds are the only birds which can fly backwards