Hummingbirds: Bubbles Wrapped in Feathers

Their appearance has been described as "glittering fragments of rainbows, flamingo comets, and living gems," but equally fascinating and beautiful is what hummingbirds are physically able to do and how they are able to do it. Their bodies, bones, and feathers are filled with air -- which makes them little more than "bubbles wrapped in feathers" -- yet an adult hummingbird visits an average of 1,500 flowers a day. Its resting heart rate is 500 beats per minute, and it breathes 250 times a minute. In this delightful and fascinating excerpt of "Tamed and Untamed: Close Encounters of the Animal Kind," Sy Montgomery and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas share lessons and lore learned from hummingbird experts. "Reasoning that surely a bird so tiny with feathers so brilliant must be born anew each day, the Spaniards who first encountered South America's hummingbirds called them 'resurrection birds.' ... They force us to see the world made new each time, and teach us to believe in ordinary miracles."

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