Creator of all things
By Chloe Raines, Age 1
On the 5th day of creation God created
hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are
the smallest birds in the world and there are over
320 different
species of them just in the western hemisphere.
They differ in size
from the bee hummingbird of Cuba that is just over
2 inches long and
weighs less than one penny, to the giant
hummingbird of the Andes
Mountains that can be about 8 inches long. Another
amazing hummer is
the sword billed hummingbird that has a beak that
measures 4 inches
long, longer that its entire body!
The spanish used to call hummingbirds “joyas
voladores,” meaning
“flying jewels” because they have iridescent
feathers that shimmer and
shine. Their feathers can appear any color of the
rainbow, depending
on how the sun hits them. At night, however, the
feathers are a dull
black or brown.
Hummingbird are named after how their wings “hum”
as they fly. Hummers
have special shoulder joints that allow them to
rotate their wings 180
degrees. When they fly, instead of flapping their
wings like most
birds, they rotate them in a figure 8 motion which
allows them to
hover or to fly in any direction, even backwards.
Hummers have a rate
of 80 wingbeats per second and their normal
flight speed is about 30
mph but they can dive at speeds up to 60 mph.
Hummingbirds seem especially attracted to the
color red and their are
many theories as to why. Some say its because red
flowers are easily
seen in flight, especially against a background of
green leaves, and
others say it could be because red is at the high
end of the color
spectrum so it catches thier attention quickly.
Or it could be that
because insects cannot see red, the hummingbirds
are not in direct
competition for red flowers. God also created the
hummingbird with the
ability to see colors in the ultraviolet spectrum,
which is invisible
to humans. Hummingbirds, as well as bees, are
attracted to flowers
with ultraviolet patterns. Hummingbirds can eat up
to 2 times their
body weight in nectar daily, and because nectar is
a solution of water
and sugar, it has been figured that hummers
normally eat at least half
their weight in sugar daily! Aside from nectar,
hummers do
occasionally eat insects and spiders for necessary
protein, but it has
been estimated that they regularly feed from at
least 1,000 flowers
every day.
Hummingbirds have the highest metabolism of any
warmblooded animal so
they must eat consistently. In fact, if a
160-pound human wanted to
“eat like a bird”, namely, the hummingbird, he
would have to consume
300 pounds of food per day, and at that point, his
metabolic rate
would be so high he would become incandescent and
burn up! Hummers
actually have such a high metabolism that if they
did not go into a
sort of hibernation, called torpor, overnight,
they would starve to
death. When in torpor, their heartbeat slows from
about 1,000 beats
per minute to only about 50 and their metabolism
is slowed alarmingly
to reduce the need for food.
These tiny and intricate birds are a tribute to
God’s awesome
creation, as evolution could never make something
so tiny and yet so
perfect. These birds were truly made by the
Creator of all things, of
whom all things are possible.
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