Geographic Range
Mellisuga helenae
are residents of Cuba, an island located in the West Indies. Today, bee hummingbirds
inhabit the entire island and Isla de la Juventud, which is the largest of the islands
off Cuba's southern coast. There have also been several bee hummingbird sightings
on the neighboring islands of Jamaica and Haiti.
- Biogeographic Regions
- neotropical
- Other Geographic Terms
- island endemic
Habitat
Cuba has a humid subtropical climate with no seasonal extremes, a favorable environment
for bee hummingbirds. Bee hummingbirds prefer areas with the plant solandria grand
flora, which provides their preferred source of nectar. Although bee hummingbirds
may live at both high and low altitudes, they seem to prefer lowlands. They can be
found in coastal and interior forests, in mountain valleys, swampy areas and gardens.
- Habitat Regions
- tropical
- terrestrial
- Terrestrial Biomes
- forest
- rainforest
- Aquatic Biomes
- coastal
- Wetlands
- swamp
- Other Habitat Features
- suburban
Physical Description
Bee hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world. They also spend a higher percentage
of their lives flying than any other species. They are comparable in size to large
bees. Female
M. helenae
tend to be slightly larger than males. Males grow to be 5.51 cm long and weigh 1.95
g, on average, while females grow to be 6.12 cm long and weigh 2.6 g, on average.
This small species is very compact and agile with an average wingspan of 3.25 cm.
These birds have straight and rather short beaks when compared with other species
of hummingbirds. Male
M. helenae
can be distinguished by their bright colors and the iridescent feathers on their
throats. They have specially adapted flight muscles, which make up 22 to 34 percent
of their total body weight.
Mellisuga helenae
(and other hummingbirds) are also equipped with a large keel and tapered wings, which
aid in flying. As is common among other hummingbirds, their shoulder joints allow
their wings to rotate 180 degrees and their small feet and legs can only be used for
perching.
- Other Physical Features
- endothermic
- bilateral symmetry
- Sexual Dimorphism
- female larger
- male more colorful
Development
When first hatched, new M. helenae are blind and nearly naked of plumage (feathers), but their growth is rapid. The young Bee Hummingbirds are fed by regurgitation for 20-40 days while the mother hovers over the nest. Hatchlings tend to leave the nest only after their wing feathers are fully-grown. This is about 22-24 days after hatching. The nestlings’ initial plumage closely resembles that of an adult Bee Hummingbird, with an exception to the dark colorations and the iridescent ornamentations. These characteristics are developed later in the life (decorative patterns) of the adult male (Terres 1982; Thomson 1964).
Reproduction
Male
M. helenae
form leks (groups of singing males that form during breeding season) to perform advertising
songs to attract females. The songs may be brief warbles or a repetition of a few
notes. Females visit several leks and select a mate based on his performance. A single
male may mate with several females in one season.
- Mating System
- polygynous
Breeding occurs at the end of the wet season and the beginning of the dry season when many trees and shrubs are flowering. Breeding corresponds with the flowering patterns of sloandria grand flora, the bird's preferred source of nectar. Mating in bee hummingbirds can occur on a perch or while hovering in the air.
Female bee hummingbirds typically lay 2 pea-sized eggs. The eggs are elliptical in
shape and are white. Incubation lasts 14 to 23 days and the chicks fledge after 18
to 38 days. Females make their first attempt to breed when they are 1 year old.
- Key Reproductive Features
- iteroparous
- seasonal breeding
- gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
- sexual
- fertilization
- oviparous
Female
M. helenae
are entirely responsible for the care of the altricial young. Females build a small
cup shaped nest with relatively thick walls made of moss, bark and spider webs. Nests
are often lined with down to help keep the eggs warm.
- Parental Investment
- no parental involvement
- altricial
- pre-fertilization
-
pre-hatching/birth
-
protecting
- female
-
protecting
-
pre-weaning/fledging
-
provisioning
- female
-
provisioning
Lifespan/Longevity
Bee hummingbirds are known to live up to 7 years in the wild, and 10 years in captivity.
Behavior
Bee hummingbirds are diurnal. Because of the climate they inhabit, they have no need to migrate long distances. They may make seasonal movements in response to the abundance and distribution of flowers. This species is capable of flying at speeds of 25 to 30 MPH.
Bee hummingbirds (like other hummingbirds) have unique flying skills. They are able to fly straight up, down, backwards and even upside down. They hover by moving their wings in a figure-eight pattern which allows them to remain stationary in the air.
Bee hummingbirds have adapted to the cool weather during the night by using torpor. During cold nights, their body temperature, which is normally 41 degrees C, falls to the air temperature around 30 degrees C. This allows them to conserve energy.
The tiny male birds establish feeding territories, where they aggressively chase other males, bumblebees and hawk moths that try to feed in their territory. Aerial flights and intimidating displays are used to defend the territories.
For all aspects of life other than breeding, bee hummingbirds tend to live a solitary
existence.
- Key Behaviors
- flies
- diurnal
- motile
- daily torpor
- solitary
- territorial
Home Range
We do not have information on home range for this species at this time.
Communication and Perception
Male and female
M. helenae
interact using simple songs that are high-pitched and unattractive to the human ear.
They are capable of a variety of vocal sounds including squeaking and twittering.
Many of their songs consist of a single repeated note, each note lasting less than
a second. Analysis of these melodies has shown that different leks and individual
males within a single singing assembly vary their songs.
- Communication Channels
- acoustic
- Other Communication Modes
- choruses
Food Habits
As with all members of the family Trochilidae , M. helenae have evolved a unique tongue structure in order to more efficiently obtain nectar from flowers. Their tongue is long and protractile. The bill is also used to extract insects and spiders from within flowers. The birds hover in front of flowers while feeding. Because the hummingbird flowers have no perch, it is difficult for other birds and insects to exploit their nectar so bee hummingbirds have little competition for their food source. Bee hummingbirds consume their weight in nectar and insects each day. They prefer nectar with sucrose concentrations of 15 to 30 percent. Because of their fast metabolism, bee hummingbirds require a high nutrient intake and spend up to 15 percent of their time eating.
In addition to nectar, bee hummingbirds eat insects and spiders.
- Primary Diet
- herbivore
- Animal Foods
- insects
- terrestrial non-insect arthropods
- Plant Foods
- nectar
Predation
Anti-predator adaptations in M. helenae include their maneuverability and speed. Bee hummingbirds, along with other hummingbirds, are the only birds capable of flying backwards and making immediate stops while flying in the air. They also perform a nuptial dive, which is made up of several downward dashes with intermittent pauses and is used to scare predators from their territory.
Bee hummingbirds have reportedly been caught and eaten by hawks (family
Accipitridae
), falcons (family
Falconidae
), kestrels (genus
Falco
), orioles (genus
Icterus
), frogs (order
Anura
), fish (class
Actinopterygii
) and tropical spiders (order
Araneae
).
Ecosystem Roles
Bee hummingbirds are important for the pollination of various flowers in Cuba and
Jamaica. Flowers such as solandria grand flora and the scarlet bush have evolved
to make their nectar accessible only to this species. In these relationships, the
birds and plants are codependent.
- Ecosystem Impact
- pollinates
Economic Importance for Humans: Positive
Bee hummingbirds, along with other species of hummingbird, are known for their grace
and beauty. During the 19th century, stuffed hummingbirds were a status symbol worn
on the hats of women. Farmers, scientists and tourists are often impressed by these
tiny wonders of nature. Bee hummingbirds can be attracted to gardens with hummingbird
flowers or hanging feeders of sugar water solution. Hummingbirds can also be important
crop pollinators.
- Positive Impacts
- ecotourism
- pollinates crops
Economic Importance for Humans: Negative
There are no known adverse affects of bee hummingbirds on humans.
Conservation Status
The first human threat to hummingbirds most likely occurred during the 19th century when stuffed hummingbirds were a status symbol worn on the hats of women. Today, the greatest threat to the survival of the species is the destruction of forests and replacement of other natural vegetation with crops. This has an impact on the availability of suitable nesting sites and nest construction materials.
In order to maintain the biodiversity of the West Indies, the government of Cuba is determined to keep its annual deforestation rate at a low 0.1 percent. In 1959, the revolutionary government took charge and the Reforestation Plan was enacted. Planting efforts increased from 50.8 million trees planted each year between 1960 and 1969 to 136.3 million between the years 1980 and 1988.
Bee hummingbirds are listed as lower risk/near threatened by the IUCN and under Appendix
II by CITES.
Other Comments
The wings of hummingbirds vibrate so rapidly that they create a humming sound. This is where the common name hummingbird originated.
When size is taken into account, the amount of energy required by a bee hummingbird each day is 10 times the amount spent by marathon runners.
This species of hummingbird is capable of visiting as many as 1,500 flowers in a single
day.
Additional Links
Contributors
Alaine Camfield (editor), Animal Diversity Web.
Adrienne Glick (author), Western Maryland College, Randall L. Morrison (editor), Western Maryland College.
- Neotropical
-
living in the southern part of the New World. In other words, Central and South America.
- native range
-
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
- island endemic
-
animals that live only on an island or set of islands.
- tropical
-
the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.
- terrestrial
-
Living on the ground.
- forest
-
forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.
- rainforest
-
rainforests, both temperate and tropical, are dominated by trees often forming a closed canopy with little light reaching the ground. Epiphytes and climbing plants are also abundant. Precipitation is typically not limiting, but may be somewhat seasonal.
- coastal
-
the nearshore aquatic habitats near a coast, or shoreline.
- swamp
-
a wetland area that may be permanently or intermittently covered in water, often dominated by woody vegetation.
- suburban
-
living in residential areas on the outskirts of large cities or towns.
- polygynous
-
having more than one female as a mate at one time
- iteroparous
-
offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).
- seasonal breeding
-
breeding is confined to a particular season
- sexual
-
reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female
- fertilization
-
union of egg and spermatozoan
- internal fertilization
-
fertilization takes place within the female's body
- oviparous
-
reproduction in which eggs are released by the female; development of offspring occurs outside the mother's body.
- altricial
-
young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.
- diurnal
-
- active during the day, 2. lasting for one day.
- motile
-
having the capacity to move from one place to another.
- solitary
-
lives alone
- territorial
-
defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement
- acoustic
-
uses sound to communicate
- choruses
-
to jointly display, usually with sounds, at the same time as two or more other individuals of the same or different species
- ecotourism
-
humans benefit economically by promoting tourism that focuses on the appreciation of natural areas or animals. Ecotourism implies that there are existing programs that profit from the appreciation of natural areas or animals.
- herbivore
-
An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.
- nectarivore
-
an animal that mainly eats nectar from flowers
- endothermic
-
animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.
- bilateral symmetry
-
having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.
- visual
-
uses sight to communicate
- tactile
-
uses touch to communicate
- acoustic
-
uses sound to communicate
- chemical
-
uses smells or other chemicals to communicate
References
BirdLife International, 2003. "BirdLife's online World Bird Database: the site for bird conservation" (On-line). Accessed January 19, 2004 at http://www.birdlife.org .
Harmer, S., A. Shipley. 1959. Birds . New York: Hafner Publishing Co..
Lack, D. 1971. Ecological Isolation in Birds . Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Lack, D. 1973. The numbers of species of hummingbirds in the West Indies. Evolution , 27: 326-337.
Perrins, C., C. Middleton. 1989. Encyclopedia of Birds . NY: Facts on File.
Peters, S. 2000. Bumblebee Hummingbirds of Cuba . NY: Welschner Books Inc.
Santana, E. 1991. Nature conservation and development in Cuba. Conservation Biology , 5(1) 5: 13-16.
Sibley, C., J. Ahlquist. 1990. Phylogeny and Classification of Birds . London: Yale University Press.
Terres, J. 1982. Hummingbird Family . NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
Thomson, A. 1964. Hummingbird . NY: McGraw-Hill Book Co.
Tyrrell, Q. 1990. Hummingbirds of the Caribbean . NY: Crown Publishers, Inc.
Weekes, W. 2000. "An Itty-Bitty Humdinger" (On-line). The World and I. Accessed January 19, 2004 at http://www.worldandi.com/specialreport/2000/july/Sa20985.htm .
Welty, J. 1975. The Life of Birds . Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company.