Thousand and one hummingbirds

Immerse yourself in a world of birds – our stay in Mindo

One, two… then a third comes along and sits on the hand to get some sugar water. The weight is barely noticeable and the small claws tickle the fingers. Suddenly, a slightly larger hummingbird comes along and pushes the others away.

In Mindo, we have landed in the middle of a hummingbird world. Hummingbirds of all colours and sizes buzz through the forests here and show themselves off. There are said to be around 130 different species of hummingbird in Ecuador itself, and around 320 worldwide. In Mindo itself, you can see up to 40 species.

A true American

Hummingbirds are only found on the American continent, but there they can be found from southern Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, in Argentina. Up in the Andes, in desert areas and of course in forest areas like Mindo. But most species live around the equator.

They feed on flower nectar and sugar water, which is offered at many feeding sites. The sugar water does not harm the hummingbirds because they live in the wild and can decide for themselves what nutrients they need. They prefer red and orange flowers, which is why the feeders or the lids you see are usually red.

Where we were, we could refill our sugar water and put it in the lid, hold out our hand, keep still and wait. At some point, the first one dared. The hummingbird inspected the container and stuck out its tongue to suck up the water. The nectar goes straight into the small intestine so that the energy is available quickly.

Sugar, insects and alcohol

Their fast metabolism requires a lot of energy. They also eat lots of small insects and spiders throughout the day to cover their protein requirements. Sometimes they also consume some alcohol, which is produced during the fermentation of the flowers, but never more than 1.5 %. At the end of the day, they have eaten about twice their own body weight in food.

The high energy consumption is due to their buzzing flight. When hovering, they flap their wings up to 70 times per second, depending on the species. Their wings are very flexible, allowing them to perform all kinds of tricks: hovering on the spot, flying sideways and even backwards. What is most impressive, however, is their acceleration and the speed they reach.

A calming speed

In relation to their size, they are among the fastest vertebrates in the world, as they can fly at over 50 kilometres per hour. Sometimes they flew past us, sometimes only very close to our heads. The small, colourful and agile birds are territorial fighters and chase each other through the air.

The hummingbird also has a very large heart in its small body. The muscle beats between 500 and 1200 times per minute and the breathing rate is also between 250 and 500 breaths per minute. You could feel this every time they sat on your hand, you could feel their heartbeat. A very special feeling and somehow calming despite the speed. At night, they fall into a state of torpor, in which they can reduce their heartbeat to 50 beats per minute to save energy.

Horn on feathers?

In addition to the different sizes and shapes, the colours are also spectacular. The plumage shimmers and changes colour depending on the viewing angle. This is because hummingbird feathers consist of several layers of thin horn lamellae – not pigments. As a result, the light is reflected differently and you see different colours from different angles. In any case, it was nice to keep discovering new colours.

Oh, and hummingbirds also fly in the rain, they can shake off the drops. Sitting on the branch, they use the raindrops as a shower. Very funny!

And some more about the colibris in Mindo

The species we saw in Mindo were impressive. And now, during our research, our respect for the performance of these animals has grown even more. We can’t name them all here, but some species stand out even more.

The long-tailed sylph has bright, two-part, long tail feathers. Watching it vibrate and wash is brilliant, but only the male has these feathers.

The purple-throated woodstar grows to just 7.5 cm, with a beak measuring only 1.5 cm.

The different beaks of the hummingbirds are impressive. Over the centuries, evolution has led to each bird specialising in a very specific type of flower. There are long beaks like the Sword-billed Hummingbird, downward curved beaks like the white-whiskered hermit or very short beaks like the velvet-purple coronet, which are a maximum of 18 mm long at a size of 11 cm.

The Sword-billed Hummingbird has the longest beak of the species, the species grows to around 17 to 22 cm, whereby the beak itself is 9 to 11 cm long. It is therefore longer than the body.

In addition to the hummingbirds, there are countless other birds to be seen in Mindo. Toucans, arasari, quetzals and many, many more that we can’t even list here. We definitely enjoyed it so much that we stayed in the region for a whole week.