Hummingbirds: Jewels in Flight

Everything about hummingbirds is astonishing and amazing. This excellent book provides an overview of the intricacy and wonder of these remarkable creatures. Attractively designed and filled with gorgeous color plates, Jewels in Flight invites casual flipping through its pages. However, delving into the text is where the real rewards lie, as the reader is treated to many almost unbelievable facts of hummer natural history. Here is a smattering of what we learn: * During courtship a hummer's heart may race to 20 beats per second. * Hummingbird wings, which flex at the shoulder and rotate through 180 degrees, move through a complete cycle in 1/500 of a second. * In the course of crossing the Gulf of Mexico during its migration a ruby throated hummingbird will beat its wings over four million times without stopping. * Hummingbird eggs are tiny averaging less than .02 ounce. Nevertheless in relative terms this is very large, representing 2 to 4 % of the adult's body weight. In human terms, this would compare to a 130 pound mother giving birth to a 20 pound child. * Some hummingbird feathers are modified to produce particular sounds in addition to color and flight characteristics. And on and on and on. It makes for an utterly fascinating read. Highly recommended.

This book is excellent!! Great condition. Prompt shipping. Couldn't have asked for more. Fascinating information and pictures. Better than expected!!

With it's beautiful, extremely close-up color photos, this book about hummingbirds looks like a coffee table book. But I was very surprised and pleased upon reading the text that this is really a very serious book that will answer literally any hummingbird question you might have. Some of the questions I had about hummingbirds were: do hummingbirds eat anything but nectar? why do we only have ruby-throated hummingbirds east of the Rocky Mountains? how old do hummingbirds live to be? do all hummingbirds migrate? do male hummingbirds aid in raising the babies? do they migrate in flocks? Not only are all these questions and many more answered, there was a chapter about migration that started with a baby hummingbird born in northern New York state, and followed him to his winter home in Argentina. I was amazed at how quickly the tiny bird could make it from NY to VA, and then, the suspense of how he could possibly fly across the Gulf of Mexico- obviously no place to rest, and no food available. If, like me, you have had long unanswered questions about hummingbirds, this is the ideal book. I would think it would be great to read parts of this book and look at the beautiful pictures with older children, too.

This is an essential reference on the life of hummingbirds. Over 100 beautiful color photos show many species of these elegant birds eating, resting, & in mid-flight. The book starts out with the author's personal experiences with hummingbirds. It then explains the birds' history, classification, distribution, & habitat, comparing the various types of hummingbirds. How they fly, what & how they eat, mating rituals & nest building are then detailed. Conservation, migration, tracking, & banding are covered as well. There even a whole section on hummingbird meccas.Finally, the book gives tips on how to attract the birds. Types of plants that attract hummingbirds are listed for 6 different regions, with both common & Latin names. The bird types native to each region are also given.