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Do You Know Hummingbirds? Take the Quiz and Find Out!

Published on April 6, 2021Last updated October 4, 2021 ♛ By Melissa J. Will

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How well do you know hummingbirds? Try this short quiz and discover some surprising facts about these amazing little creatures.

Wondering when they’ll appear in your area? This spring migration map tracks their journeys.

Hummingbird hovering near flowering.

Hummingbird Facts and Fiction

Do you know hummingbirds? Take the quiz and find out

Are you a hummingbird fan? They are well-loved by many gardeners and bird watchers but along with the fanfare comes a lot of misinformation.

But the facts outshine the myths! After many hours spent researching this article, I’d say these tiny birds truly deserve their super-bird status.

  1. Take the quiz and count how many answers you get correct. There’s 8 questions total.
  2. Check your score at the end to see if you are an ultimate hummer fan.


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Hummingbird Quiz

True or False?

1Hummingbirds only drink nectar from red flowers and feeders.

Hummingbird hovering need sugar feeder.
Hummingbird at backyard feeder
Arrow pointing to answer.

False.

  • First, hummingbirds don’t live on nectar alone: insects are the bulk of their diet.
  • While the colors red and orange are a signal that nectar may be present, they actually drink nectar from a variety of flowers (different colors and shapes) that have a specific sugar ratio (10-25%). The healthiest sugar water recipes use this same ratio.
  • Red hummingbird feeders simply help them identify a potential food source from a distance. But you should never use red food coloring in their sugar water—that is harmful.

    Do they also find food by scent? We are just beginning to learn about their sense of smell. This recent study found they do sense chemical cues from some insects.

If you want to attract hummingbirds to your garden, grow flowers such as bee balm, cardinal flower, native honeysuckle, and columbine (if these choices are indigenous to your region). These offer the desired sugar ratios and optimum flower shapes for accessing the nectar. This has a longer list of flowers hummingbirds like.


Hummingbird taking nectar from a flower.

Related: How To Grow a Hummingbird-Friendly Garden



True or False?

2Any sweetened water is good for hummingbirds.

Arrow pointing to answer.


False.

  • Only use white granulated sugar when preparing sugar water for hummingbirds.
  • Never use brown sugar, honey, powders, or food colors in hummer feeders. They cause a range of problems including rapid bacteria and fungi growth and the potential spread of disease.

This sugar water recipe lists the correct sugar to water ratios for hummingbirds.


Hummingbird landing at sugar water feeder.

Related: How to Make Hummingbird Food (Sugar Water Recipe)


Selecting a Hummingbird Feeder

Look for a feeder that:

  1. Offers a resting perch while drinking so they don’t have to waste energy hovering.
  2. Pick a feeder that will be easy to clean. You’ll want to be able to get a bottle scrubber in every part to ensure the feeder is kept mold-free. 

    Here’s the hummingbird feeder I like.
Hummingbird feeder

Recommended Hummingbird Feeder

Hummingbird Feeder | Amazon

I like this style of feeder for a few reasons. First, it provides a perch for the birds as they feed. This is important so they don’t waste energy. Also, it’s easy to clean, which helps prevent disease.

See it at Amazon

True or False?

3Hummingbirds must keep moving to survive.

Hummingbird sitting on tree branch.
Hummingbird resting on tree branch
Arrow pointing to answer.

False.

  • While they are fantastic flyers, hummingbirds spend just 10% of their time in flight. Flying is extraordinarily demanding on their bodies so they make the best use of it for obtaining food and (occasionally) flights for mating.
  • The remainder of their time is spent sitting, digesting, and in torpor—a sleep-like state where their metabolic rate drops significantly to conserve energy.

Bonus trivia: Hummingbirds are the only species that can fly backwards, sustain a hovering position, and fly upside down.


Collage of summer and winter garden and a ruby-throated hummingbird

Related: Hummingbirds Through the Seasons (A Guide For Gardeners)



True or False?

4Hummingbirds die after mating.

Hummingbird
Hummingbird watching the garden
Arrow pointing to answer.

False.

  • The first year of life is a precarious time for most young birds, but if hummers survive it, they can live ten years or longer.
  • There is record of a tagged hummingbird living over 12 years.

Speaking of mating, the males do not participate in the nesting or raising the young. The females take care of everything.


True or False?

5Hummingbirds can die of starvation just a few hours after eating.

Hummingbird near columbine flowers.
Hummingbird at columbine (Aquilegia) flowers
Arrow pointing to answer.

True.

  • The hummingbird’s metabolism is so rapid that consumed sugars are used immediately to fuel the body.
  • Periods of torpor (rest with a low metabolic rate) ease the threat of starvation, but overall, they must keep eating all day long to survive.
  • To survive long distance migrations (18-20 hour flight over the Gulf of Mexico), they bulk up their body fat ahead of time.

True or False?

6Spiders can kill hummingbirds.

Hummingbird hovering in garden.
Sometimes hummingbirds blend right into their surroundings
Arrow pointing to answer.

True.

  • The list of potential predators is long and spiders can be above hummers in the food chain. Because hummingbirds use spider silk to bind their nests together, occasionally, while acquiring silk, they get tangled and the spider strikes back. Zoink.
  • The most common predator (for all birds) is domesticated cats. Other threats include preying mantis, hawks, other birds such a blue jays and crows, snakes, bees, wasps, frogs, and fish(!).
  • To their credit, hummingbirds can be fearless defenders. I know I’ve seen this firsthand. Last summer I witnessed our hummers chasing bees away from the feeder and squirrels away from their nests.

Bees bothering hummingbird at feeder.

Related: How to Feed Hummingbirds Without Attracting Bees



True or False?

7Hummingbirds can fly 15 meters (16.4 yards) per second.

Hummingbird approaching feeder.
The color red on a feeder is attractive to hummingbirds
Arrow pointing to answer.

True.

The numbers are truly amazing.

  • Flight speed: 15 meters per second / 16.4 yards per second.
  • Wing speed: 12-80 times per second depending on the species.
  • Heart Rate: 1260 beats per minute (during flight).
  • Body weight: 2-20 grams- some weigh less than a penny!
  • Total number of hummingbird species: 325-340. No wonder it’s hard to keep them all straight! Though just a handful migrate through Canada and the United States. This lists some common species you may recognize.

True or False?

8Hummingbirds are amazing.

Arrow pointing to answer.

True. 

If you’re reading this, I assume you’ve already earned this bonus point.

Bee at allium flowers.
Bee balm – it’s not just for bees! Hummingbirds love it too!

Score

Number of Correct Answers

0-3 = Hum-Dinger! Womp womp. Clearly your hummingbird love is stronger than your hummer book smarts. But so was mine until I wrote this post!

4-6= Humming-Along! Impressive yet humble score.

6-8 = Hum-Zinger! Congratulations! May the hummingbirds serenade you in the garden while you tell them all about themselves!


Resources

Empress of Dirt

FREE TIP SHEET

Hummingbird Food Recipe & Care Tips

File includes sugar water recipe for various batch sizes and feeder cleaning tips.

Ruby-throated hummingbird flying toward sugar water feeder.
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Hummingbird avoiding sugar water feeder

Related: Why Hummingbirds Are Avoiding Your Feeders


Read More

I’ve done my best to provide accurate information despite a lot of contradictions in the dozens of articles I used for research.

I particularly enjoyed this compilation:

  • Wikipedia | Hummingbird

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛

Do you know hummingbirds? Take the quiz and find out
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Melissa J. Will - Empress of DirtWelcome!
I’m Melissa J. Will a.k.a. the Empress of Dirt (Ontario, Canada).
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