Hummingbirds sing with their tails by making their tail feathers vibrate at specific frequencies. Male hummingbirds use these songs along with acrobatic diving displays to attract females. Each species of hummingbird has a different song, and songs can vary between individual hummingbirds because of differences in feather shape and stiffness.
More facts about hummingbirds:
- Hummingbirds are the only type of bird that can fly backward.
- The smallest species of bird is the bee hummingbird. Adult bee hummingbirds are about the size of a human thumb and weigh 0.063 ounces (about 1.8 grams).
- Hummingbirds can live for more than a decade, although most species in North America live about three to five years. This is unusually long for any type of animal with such a fast metabolism. Although hummingbirds can slow their metabolism, when they're in flight, they have the fastest metabolism of any animal.
