Earlier I had wondered and boasted about the presence of a tiniest bird in my garden. But it was not a bird and it turned out to be a moth. Now we see here the real smallest living bird found in this world. It is the Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae). Its size is only 5cm. It is just like an insect. It can hover on a spot as a helicopter does in midair.
Its wings beat at a speed of 80 per second; we don't see its wings at all: we see only a wingless bird on the sky!
Cuba is the native of this bee hummingbird. Male bird is smaller than the female. It has a greenish head and iridescent breast. Female bird is bluish green. It builds cup-sized nest of 1 inch diameter. Two eggs are laid that are pea-sized. After incubation by the female bird the young ones hatch out with a size that you can imagine! The bird takes nectar from flowers with its pointed bills; it visits about 1500 flowers each day! Not only that, it pollinates flowers it visits by the pollens stuck on to it thereby aiding plant reproduction.
This tiny Bee hummingbird is a wonder guest to all the flowers apart from its being the smallest wonder bird to all of us!
Read a related post from this blog:
Hummingbird or Hawk Moth? Find it here!
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