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

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.

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Hummingbird Facts and Fiction

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.

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.

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True or False?

2Any sweetened water is good for hummingbirds.

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.

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.

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True or False?

3Hummingbirds must keep moving to survive.

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.

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True or False?

4Hummingbirds die after mating.

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.

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True or False?

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

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.

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True or False?

6Spiders can kill hummingbirds.

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.

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True or False?

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

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.

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True or False?

8Hummingbirds are amazing.

True. 

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

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Resources

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 ♛