Two species of birds with super abilities 'weird': Eat twice the body weight and the reason is ...

To prepare for a direct flight over a Atlantic Ocean or across the Gulf of Mexico, these two tiny birds will attempt to eat twice as much body weight each day. In order to get ready to go, they were twice as heavy.

Originally, trying to accumulate fat to prepare for long migrations was very common for species.

Mother nature is generous but sometimes very harsh. Limosa lapponica (290g) must fly a circuit from Alaska to New Zealand for 9 days without stopping, not hunting. Brown backstocks weigh only 140g and are constantly going back and forth between South America and the North Pole for survival. If you calculate its total lifetime, it is even shorter than the distance from Earth to the Moon (384,403 km) a few miles away.

But our main character today is not the two birds mentioned above, but two smaller species that are many times more than the red-eared Archilochus colubris and Blackpoll warbler (Setophaga striata). The normal red throat hummingbird weighs only 2-3g, and the Blackpoll warbler is much better, at 12g.

Blackpoll Warbler (left) and red throat hummingbird.

Even though it was so small, they were still migratory birds. When the fall in North America, both of these tiny feathers are gaining weight, and they gain weight .

Blackpoll Warbler - fly straight an 80h slide to cross the Atlantic

Falling on North American soil is also when trees leave leaves and are bare. In that ruined nature, the super-small Blackpoll warbler with simple fur seems to stand out. Although they were born and grew up here, they still had to worry about preparing an extremely long flight before the winter was really over.

The body is small but the Blackpoll warbler has the potential to conquer a long-distance champion. During about 3 days, sometimes up to 80 hours, they will fly nonstop, cutting a straight line across the Atlantic Ocean to Colombia or Venezuela.

Although young, the Blackpoll warbler has the potential to conquer a long-distance champion.

With such a straight flight, they of course have to worry about storing enough energy. They will devour everything possible, trying to make the weight double as quickly as possible.

Blackpoll's staple food is insects and berries . But before they migrate, they will eat spiders, spider eggs and scales too. When the weight is doubled, they will aim directly at the destination and take off.

Red throat hummingbird - conquering the Gulf of Mexico with 20 hours of continuous wing beating

Anyway, it's not too difficult for Blackpoll warblers to gain weight, because their food is very diverse and nutritious. As for the red throat hummingbird, it's different! They are almost entirely dependent on nectar.

Red throat hummingbirds almost entirely depend on nectar.

With an average weight of only 2-3g, wingspan is small, red throat hummingbirds are not interested in migration either. But when winter comes, trees in Canada, America and southern Mexico - their main habitats - no longer bloom. So they were forced to cross the Gulf of Mexico to Panama, where the weather was still warm.

And even though they don't have to fly too far, they still need to beat their wings constantly and continuously for 18-20 hours. After almost one day, the red throat hummingbird burns about 1/3 of its body weight.

Even the rhythm of life is always fast and urgent

If you've ever watched videos about hummingbirds, you'll see they seem to never stop beating their wings. Even while they were sucking bile, their tiny wings were still waving constantly, keeping their bodies suspended like standing still in the air.

According to the scientists' confirmation, the birds then red throat beat their wings 70 times per second while flying and 200 times per second when it "stood still" in the air. To the heart rate of the red throat hummingbird was also terribly fast, the 225 times / minute when it rested, and 1200 times / minute when it was flying.

Birds then red throat beat their wings 70 times / second while flying.

In order to serve that fast pace, the hummingbirds must eat continuously. According to researcher Anusha Shankar, if converting the hummingbird feeding ability to humans, it is equivalent to a person who eats up to 300 hamburgers a day.

And to prepare for a flight across the Gulf of Mexico, they even suck in more mad bile, which can cram more than twice their own weight every day. To get ready to go, its weight also doubled, up to 6g.

Another interesting thing about hummingbirds is that they are extremely independent and . stingy. Every hummingbird tries to localize, dominate a locality, keep the flowers filled with its own sweet honey.

Other hummingbirds can also sneak into smoking. However, they will have to pay dearly if discovered by the "landlord".