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Appearance	Range	Humans and Feeding	Myth and Culture	Flight structure

Appearance The hummingbird it's a small bird with a long thin beak. The beak of the bird is its defiying characteristics.Its long tongue allows it to feed uponthe profounding nectars of the flowers. The lower beak allows the the hummingbirf to have a wider opening facilitating the capture of the insects and having the ability to eat bigger insects.This also allows the hummingbird to eat with its mouth and not with the tip of the beak. The sizes of the hummingbirds vary depending on the type of hummingbird there is. The smallest hummingbird is the bee hummingbird which only weigh 2 g . However the giant hummingbird weigh 19-21 g.Although there are many colors and sized the average size of a hummingbird is about 2.5 to 6.5 g and 6-12 cm in length. The feathering of the hummingbirds is the most glittering of the bird world.The males carry the brighter feathers to atract the female hummingbirds. However the female hummingbirds have a type of camouflage with darger more dull colors.If you have seen a very beautiful hummingbird with bright colors such as red, blue, gree, yellow etc... you were looking at a male hummingbird.
Range The humming birds are only found in north and south America, from the southern part of Alaska all the way dowm past the United States,Bahamas, Caribbean, and even tropical regions of the two continents.Hummingbirds generarly do not migrate.Only the black chinned hummingbird migrantes among very few, to other warmer parts in the winter.Others from the southern parts of the continets migrate to even more south for arid areas where it is a little more cold. Before the hummingbirds that would migrate east would normally die out, and their migration depended of the inherit of their offspring. Hummingbirds can resist extreme cold weathers uptil -4 °f . They can substand dry desert climates and from sea level its altitude of 5,000 meters(15,000 feet). However the distribution of the hummingbirds is very uneven; furthermore other birds concentrate mainly on the Equator.
Humans and feeding The reason why hummingbirds are in danger is beacause they interfere with humans a lot. Obviously by mistake, however that is one of the main reasons why they die out. Hummingbirds have the tendency of flying into garages confusing the red dorr handle with a red flower even though they can be traped in enclosed areas even if they do not contain eatable for them or for any other reason. The unfortunate situation of this is their natural intict by flying up when threaten of trapped in a garage, up is the roof. This can cause the hummingbird to get exhausted faster and die in just a few minutes(avoding the fact that they are extremely nervous and anxious animals). If trapped it is best to gently reach for it and let it out in the open they will find its way.They use a lot of energy, therefore they drink a lot of nectar and protein source, which is small insects, like spiders and plantlice, perfers hunting in honeysuckle, gilia, and agave. They carry a very heavy diet of insects and allows it to survive and trive in areas where more nectar dpendant species cant. It can be said that hummingbirds carry a light diet, that is because their digestive system does not permit them to storage large quantities of food. The birds intense energy allows the bird to have a fast digestive process, as well as food containing large amounts of non-digestible residue. To that said the hummingbird is very well restricted to its food sources.
Myth and Culture In many traditional cultures of the latin and western world, the Hummingbird had powerful, religious and spiritual significance.Therefore they are absent from fairy tales and legends from the European and African myths.For example in the High andes of South America the hummingbird symbolizes resurrection, because this hummer becomes hummer and lifeless and seems to die on cold nights, but it comes back to life again when the miraculous sun rise brings warmth. Another legend says that the sun is a hummingbird in disguise, and he is trying to court a beautiful woman, who is the moon. Another mayan legend speakes of a hummingbird piercing the tongue of an ancient king.When the blood was poured in sacred scrolls and burned, divine ancestors apeared in the smoke. As you see to the mayas there was a lot of influence of the Hummingbirds. In the aztecs Huitzilopochtli, "he of the south" was a god of war and a sun god, and the patroon of the city of Tenochtitlan.(picture on right)He was also the national god of the aztecs. Also a god of death, young men warriors, storms and a guide for journeys.The Mojave legend tells of a primordial time of an underworld of darkness. They send up a hummingbird to look for light. High above them he little bird found a twisted path to the sunlit upper world where people now live.
Flight structure Scientist have studied the flight of a hummingbird from an aerodynamic perspective. Its concluded that their subject produced 75% percent of their weight support during the down-stroke, and 25% during their up-stroke. Some other studies have assumed that lift was generated equally during the two phases of the wingbeat cycle, like insects and other animials with that same flying structure. A hummingbird's wing is flexible at the shoulder but inflexible at the wrist. When the wing swing back, they tild flat for a momment before the wings are drawn. Most hummingbirds flap their wings about 50-55 per second, thats why we just see a blur. If hummingbirds want to travel 5 inches they have to fly because their little feet are too small, hummingbirds lift from their landing area without pushing of, they do it all on their own. These little birds are really strong.

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