Anna's hummingbird
Calypte anna
— Where the name comes from
Colibrì entered Europe from the Caribbean languages by way of Antillean French. The specific name anna honours Anna Masséna, Duchess of Rivoli, in whose 19th-century collection the bird was described.
— Facts
- Group
- Birds · Aves
- Order
- Hummingbirds and swifts
- Habitat
- Chaparral, gardens, open woodland
- Range
- The Pacific coast of North America
- Size
- 10 cm, 3–6 g
- Diet
- Nectar feeder, topped up with small insects
- Lifespan
- about 8 years
— Characteristics
- 01
Beats its wings up to 60 times a second, tracing a figure of eight.
- 02
It is the only bird that can fly backwards under control.
- 03
The heart reaches 1,200 beats a minute.
— What sets it apart
In his courtship display the male climbs to 30 metres and drops in a dive. At the bottom he spreads his tail: the air sets the tail feathers vibrating and produces a sharp chirp. It is an instrumental sound, not a vocal one — the bird plays itself. In that dive he covers 385 body lengths a second: relative to size, the highest speed measured in any vertebrate, greater than a fighter jet’s.
