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Life story of the hummingbird

by: Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, inc

Publication date: 1963

Topics: 16mm Film, Educational Film, Hummingbirds, Birds, Animal body growth and development

Publisher: Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corporation - EBEC310 South Michigan AveChicagoIL60604USA(800)554-9862(312)347-7000

Digitizing sponsor: Internet Archive

Contributor: Internet Archive

Language: English

With teacher's guide

Collaborators, Emmet R. Blake, Margaret McKibben Lawler

A study of the life cycle of the hummingbird, showing views of physical characteristics, feeding habits, courtship, nest-building, incubation, hatching of eggs, and growth of the young. Uses high-speed photography to show the unusual wing movements of the hummingbird

Intermediate/Elementary through junior high

Access-restricted-item: true

Addeddate: 2015-02-13 00:23:51

Boxid: IA1113012

Color: color

Curatenote: color: Good sound: Good synch: Good notes:

Identifier: lifestoryofthehummingbird

Lccn: fia63000749

Ocr: This motion picture is unusual because the incredibly tiny hummingbird although I'm afraid of ladders lights and cameras is difficult to photograph. Its movements are often swift and sudden. The hummingbird is the smallest of all birds. It averages four inches in length. How much do they weigh. It may take fifteen fully grown humming birds to weigh one ounce and this mature female barely counterbalances and that whole. By means of high speed photography you can now see The Hummingbird's wings in slow motion. The wings change pitch at the shoulders to provide lift at each stroke much like the hands of a swimmer. This unique figure eight movement. Unable to the hummingbird to remain suspended. Or to fly backward as well as forward. This money over ability enables it to feed in flight from nearly any position. The hummingbird is the only bird which can fly in any direction. Although its wings appear to be moving slowly they are beating more than sixty times each second. Many humming birds are beautifully callers are especially on the throat and have the colors are always more brilliant in the male bird. This color is caused by iridescence. The feathers contain no colour pigments they're not pigmented like this fruit but reflect colored lights like a prism or the facets of a jewel there for a moment. Contributes to the illusion of colour and the colours seem to went on and off and even change you as the bird turns its head from side to side. It's tongue is long and sticky and perfectly adapted for extracting pollen and nectar and tiny insects from flowers. The hummingbird feeds as often as fifty times a day and investigates everything in its search for food. Since it's attracted by bright colors it can be lured to your hand by colored water and will drink of the water is sweetened with sugar. Why does a small bird eat so much. Humming. Birds live in nearly every part of North and South America this is a female clip the N A from the Pacific coast of California it is more often called Anna's hummingbird. And this is the male collect the ANA one of the few homing birds which saying he courts the female like this. Courtship. Continues. With an extraordinary display by the male while the hand weights but cock flies skyward. She watches from the ground. The cock flies higher and higher until he's almost out of sight. Then he dives. What the female hears is the sound made by the Cox outer tails others listen carefully as he dives again. During such a dive the cock may reach a speed of sixty miles an hour and the On his return to the ground. The cock pursued that the male until she accept him as a roommate. The nesting season for Anna's hummingbird begins in December and lasts through August. Normally the ANA build several nests each season. In a single day she makes more than a hundred and fifty trips for nest building material. She built her nest with greater care than many birds fighting each bit of material into place and shaping it with her body. The. Twigs and grass. Feathers and spider webs and pieces of lichen are all skillfully woven together like this. Then she lines the nest with the softest material she can find you. In this case the female uses cotton from a clothes line rope and packs the lining layer on layer with their feet and body. The task of fitting and lining requires hours of patient effort before she is finished. The entire project takes almost a week and. The result is a soft warm nest about the size of a walnut shell. Or just spacious enough for a bumble bee. The hand has now been nesting a week on the seventh day. She leaves the nest and the first day. For most of the day she guards the egg. She feeds briefly but at dusk returns to the nest to protect her egg from the cold. She covers it each night for the next tonight's. In the morning of the third day she lays a second bag. Normally two eggs are all she will lay on a single nesting. The incredibly small scale of the hummingbirds world is revealed by this small be. Inside each is a chick embryo. With a normal appetite for about fifty mil today the females incessant need for food. Forces her to leave the eggs exposed frequently but only for short periods of time. She feeds during the daylight hours when the eggs will maintain a safe temperature each time she returns to the nest. She brings new material for repair. Instinctively she keeps the nest strong and warm. Or a bird so small a storm means danger. A cold beating rain is a hazard which could destroy her eggs. The incubation can last from twelve to eighteen days. Thank you. Bishan is the time between the laying and the hatching of the egg. White is the time required for incubate different with a jag. Her first egg is ready to hatch on the fifteenth day. The. On the first check hatches while she hovers over the nest egg. She. Does not feed the chicken mediately. When the check is free of its shell She covers the nest and incubator second day. Not until two hours later she feed her hungry chick. As with most newly hatched nestlings the chick receives pre-digested food. In this way she nurses her nestling on till it's to Justin can accommodate a normal diet. At this critical time. She must not neglect to recycle bag. On the sixteenth day of incubation second that catches. Now she has to ravenous appetite is to satisfy as before she watches the check during the hatching she does not possess. She make sure it is safely clear of the shell then turns all her attention to the feeding of our young. Now that. Are chicks are hatched she has neither time nor energy for careful housekeeping so she clears the nest of shells with their wings. The nestlings are helpless their eyes are closed and in the first days after hatching they require accomplice feedings. Their diet continues to be a pre to just did their hunger. Perpetual. They also demand that the warmth of her body. After a week the nestlings have enough feathers to protect them from the cold and their eyes are open. Two weeks after hatching they crowd the nest this is their progress in just fourteen days. Their beaks grow longer and by the time they can fly they will be able to feed from flowers. Covering the nestlings is knowledge difficult since you can find no room for herself she leaves the nest. For the first time since hatching the chicks are alone in the nest at night while the him takes an undisturbed rest her feathers fluffed against the cold. To the chicks rain is strange and on comfortable. But the him no longer give them protection. Seventeen days after hatching the chicks back is covered with iridescent feathers. Thus far they've been totally dependent on their mother. Now the fledglings began to exercise their wealth feathered wings. Unlike most birds they practice flying before they leave the nest. The mother waits. You. Are to get the fledglings to fly. She first feeds them. Then she leaves them while they're still hungry. She flies about them. New. New. New. She uses food to tempt the check hire. The first seconds lives long legs. But hunger is a strong incentive. And the need for food is continuous. You have seen the life cycle of the hummingbird the smallest of all birds. Next spring when the chicks are old enough to mate the life story will begin again.

Rights: With teacher's guideCollaborators, Emmet R. Blake, Margaret McKibben Lawler Search Educational Film Journals at Media History Project for references to this film

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Reviewer: World Power Broadcasting System - - December 27, 2021
Subject: My Hummingbird Moment

Actually I caught a hummingbird once who had gotten trapped inside a garage and kept banging into a closed window. I remember how delicate it felt fluttering in my hands, and how great it felt to release it back into nature. To this day, it remains one of the proudest moments of my life.

Reviewer: JayKay49 - - March 6, 2017
Subject: Anna's Hummingbird

Very impressive shots of hummers which ARE difficult to film because they move very erratically, and very fast. Very informative, too. Despite the numerous Costa's hummingbirds in my area all year, a lot of tidbits about the behavior of hummers that I never knew are presented here. Costa's in my experience don't like water; apparently Anna's do. Fearless of humans is characteristic of them, as well as ruby throateds. And why not? You could never catch one.

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