Hummingbirds are small, colourful birds that hover in front of flowers while they drink nectar from them. They play an important role as pollinators in the tropical and subtropical ecosystems where they live. Hummingbirds' tiny wings beat up to 80 times per second, enabling them to hover and even to fly sideways and backwards. Their wings beat so quickly that they make a humming sound similar to that of bees, after which they are named. Hummingbirds are the tiniest of all the birds, with the bee hummingbird of Cuba, about the size of a bumblebee, the smallest of all. Found only in the Americas, members of the hummingbird family are related to the swifts and tree swifts.

Feeding

Hummingbirds feed on nectar from flowers. One hummingbird may visit up to 1000 flowers a day. Because there are seldom any perches close to the flowers they depend on, the only way for the birds to reach them is by hovering. To do this, they must keep their wings very stiff and beat them very fast. Hummingbirds have very long, thin beaks to reach deep into flowers for their nectar. Some, such as the Costa's hummingbird, take all the water they need from the nectar of flowers, so they never need to drink.

Swifts

Swifts are related to hummingbirds. The scientific name for the swift family, Apus, comes from the Greek word meaning "without feet". Swifts have tiny legs and never settle on the ground, using them instead to cling to vertical surfaces. They are some of the fastest-moving creatures in the animal kingdom, able to reach confirmed speeds of 112 km/h (70 mph) in level flight.

With their long, swept-back wings and short forked tails, they are designed for speed, whizzing through the air and catching insects in their bills on the move. They even sleep and mate on the wing. In a single year, the common swift may fly at least 200,000 kilometres (about 125,000 miles).