FEATURE


second have been already measured in the wild. In contrast to other bird species hummingbirds beat their wings up and down to support their flight. The energy needed for the strength-sapping flight is gained from carbohydrates in the nectar. At rest, hummingbirds breath 300 times per minute. The breathing rate can rise to over 500 times per minute during flight or when the temperature increases. In comparison to that, doves only breath 30 times and humans only 14 to 18 times per minute. It is important for such small


birds with a high metabolism to save energy whenever they can e.g. while resting during the night or when the temperature is low. Therefore, the metabolism and the body temperature are decreased during the night, conserving up to 60 % of the energy normally used. Every night the birds enter a hibernation-like state, which is triggered by the onset of the dusk. At the end of 2011, thanks to a cooperation with a hummingbird breeding centre in Trieste, Italy, two species of hummingbirds moved into a newly designed breeding


BIRD SCENE 09


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