Hummingbirds of Costa Rica – Free video
According to A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica by F. Gary Stiles and Alexander F. Skutch, there are forty-five hummingbirds which are resident in Costa Rica and which breed within the country.
The highest number of different hummingbirds can be found in the foothills and wet mid-elevations of the Caribbean slope and diversity decreases at higher altitudes.
We have a dozen hummingbird feeders on our terrace at the moment and believe it or not, they are slurping their way through gallons a day of their sugary liquid…
Costa Rica Hummingbirds Video
To watch this video, please click on the small white triangular Play button below and allow a few seconds for the video to begin.
Hummingbirds have an extensible tongue which can be up to twice as long as the bill and the tongue flicks in and out of the flower up to a dozen times per second.
They have the highest metabolic rate of any warm-blooded animal and must eat about half their body weight in food per day and are always within a few hours of death by starvation.
I love food but the thought of eating 40 kilos of food per day just to stay alive puts their enormous effort into perspective for me. Having said that, hummingbirds spend 70-80% of their day sitting around digesting their food between feeding.
The wings of the smaller hummingbirds can beat at 50-80 times per second whereas the larges ones may only beat at 10 times per second.
If you look carefully, in some of the shorts you can even see the tiny hummingbird mites walking up and down the bill of the hummingbird. They jump onto the bill as it feeds and try to shelter in the nostrils, different flowers have different mites and their job – which must be a challenging one – is to identify the correct flower on the next trip so that they can jump off…
In the colorful video you will see Green Violet-ears, Violet Sabrewings, the Magnificent Hummingbird, the Purple-throated Mountaingem and the Volcano hummingbird, truly magical little creatures.
[custom_script adID=97]
Written by Scott Oliver, author of 1. Costa Rica Real Estate Scams & How To Avoid Them, 2. How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa, and 3. Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore.
The best hummingbird book I could find is the Hummingbirds of Costa Rica by Michael & Patricia Fogden which you can buy here.
Andrew Makarik
to@welovecostarica.comAndrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.
Are you into beautiful Costa Rica?
All interesting things you want to know about Costa Rica are right here in our newsletter! Enter your email and press "subscribe" button.
