1. Distribution and characteristics
    Belonging to the Trochilidae Family, the hummingbirds are birds that just exist in the American continent, being distributed from Alaska to the Fire Land, in Argentina. The hummingbirds maybe are the birds’ family that more attract people’s curiosity. It’s related to its diminutive size, agility and beauty, making them different in the world. There are 323 known species, as Richard Howard and Alick Moore (A complete checklist of de birds of the world, Academic Press. 1991). In Brazil there are 145 forms, having 86 species and 59 subspecies, as studied by Rolf Grantsau (Os Beija-flores do Brasil. Expressão e Cultura. Rio de Janeiro-Br. 1988).
    The hummingbirds live in varied places and ecosystems, as forests, deserts, scrubs and also near the ice. But is at the tropical region that occurs more species. In big part of the species occurs sexual dimorphism, having apparent differences between males and females. Males have vivid and shining colors and females has opaque colors and that are distributed in a uniform way. Their principal characteristic is the existence of long beak, extremely adapted to sucking the flower nectar. Its feet are small, what obstruct them of landing on the floor or “walking”. Besides, that is the reason why they stop at thin branches. Its cardiac heat is too quickly, as its wings, what makes them consuming a lot of energy, being a reason for them eating all the time. What by its time demands a lot of energy, because it has to be hovering in the air. It is an interlinked circle food/waste of energy/food. When sleeping, stays in a state of numbness, when its cardiac rhythm falls a lot. They are extremely agile, quickly and warlike birds, that are not intimidated to the bigger enemies as hawks, that attract them as bullets and making them tremors and dazed. Besides, it is really common seeing these small birds pursuing rapine birds in the air, for getting them away from their nests. Also it isn’t difficult for seeing them “having a bath” in some river of the forest. They hover from some centimeters of the ware’s mirror and give quickly “artificial dives”, wetting the pheasant quickly. After, two or three of these diving stop in a near branch and carefully put their pheasant in order.

    2. Nesting
The construction of a nest is a work that is done by the female that alone is put in charge of doing it, as the incubation of the eggs that are normally two. She, also alone, tracts of the difficult work of breeding the young. The incubation is about 16 and 17 days and the young stay on the nest from 20 to 30 days.
    The nests are done of “paina”, reforced by silk fibbers produced by spiders and covered by liquens for making confusion to the environment, making them masters of this art.
    Normally the hummingbirds construct their nests not high, being common finding them in one meter of the soil, and sometimes still less, as the nest of Chlorostilbon aureoventris, (Glittering-bellied Emerald, verdinho-de-bico-vermelho) which can be found in the forests of the County of Itapecerica de Serra (near São Paulo city), that was 60 cm from the soil.
Finding a hummingbird nest in its natural habitat is really difficult. In a forest it is almost impossible, only if a person is a specialist and has a lot have lucky. But surprisingly we can found nests of some species in human habitation, and than its observing becomes easy.
    Depending on the genus and the specie, the nest is done:
- in the form of a solid bowl, put in an horizontal branch, or on a leaf;
- in the form of an longed bowl fixed in a root under a gully;
in a longed form, hanged in the inferior part of a large leaf.

  3. Food
    Besides they eat small insects, its main diet is compound by the nectar of flowers. Attracted mainly by the red flowers, they are big pollenizers and so responsible for the reproduction of a lot of plants species.
    For observing hummingbirds in the forests, it is just needed to have some patience and waiting near a flower as bromeliad, for example, that soon one will appear for sucking its nectar.
In the parks and gardens of the city the observing may be easier, because are adapted to the exotic plants, the ones that are originated of another countries as Erythrina speciosa), Calliandra spp and Malvaviscus arboreus.
Clever acrobats, they are almost imperceptible when passing buzzing near us, so big is its velocity. Its wings almost become invisible when they hove in the air.
    Besides, they are the unique kind of birds that fly forward. That looks when they are eating in the flowers.
So, from all of these characteristics, we can consider hummingbirds nature jewels.

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