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Author Topic: Hummingbirds  (Read 1149 times)

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Offline pecan

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Hummingbirds
« on: April 03, 2014, 02:09:55 PM »
Since T&T is sometimes referred to as the Land of the Hummingbird and they are featured on our coat of arms, I thought this was an appropriate topic for the forum.



Reuters, By Will Dunham, WASHINGTON Thu Apr 3, 2014 2:05pm EDT




(Reuters) - For such small creatures, hummingbirds certainly have racked up an outsized list of unique claims to fame.

They are the smallest birds and the smallest warm-blooded animals on Earth. They have the fastest heart and the fastest metabolism of any vertebrate. They are the only birds that can fly backward. And scientists reported on Thursday that they also have a complicated evolutionary history.

Researchers constructed the family tree of these nectar-eating birds using genetic information from most of the world's 338 hummingbird species and their closest relatives. They said hummingbirds can be divided into nine groups, with differences in size, habitat, feeding strategy and body shape.

The common ancestor to all species in existence today lived about 22 million years ago in South America, several million years after hummingbirds were known to be flourishing in Europe, they said. Today's hummingbirds are found only in the Americas.

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Offline Deeks

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Re: Hummingbirds
« Reply #1 on: April 03, 2014, 04:31:05 PM »
Growing up in St. Joseph in the 60s, there were plenty of them. There were lots of hibiscus hedges in the area. The birds use to stick their beaks one after the other. I, we used to try to catch, hit with stick, stones or sling-shot. All to no avail. God would have punish me if I had killed one. You know, at that time we used to take it for granted that the humming birds, kiss-kee-dee, blu-jean, pico-plat, etc will always be there. But like the article stated that the depletion of plants and trees are the major issue in the demise of the birds. Well there goes the national bird of TT. Though worry the Cobo will replace it.

Offline pecan

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Re: Hummingbirds
« Reply #2 on: April 04, 2014, 06:15:42 AM »
I used to think the national bird was the hummingbird. But we have two: the Scalet Ibis (Trinidad) and the Cocrico (Tobago)

http://www.foreign.gov.tt/about_trinidad/national_bird/

The Scarlet Ibis (Eudocimus Ruber) is a species of ibis that occurs in tropical South America and Trinidad and Tobago. The largest habitat of the Scarlet Ibis is the Caroni Swamp in central Trinidad. This beautiful bird is brown when young and, its colour changes to red when it is mature. The Cocrico (Red tailed Guan or Rufus -tailed Chachalaca) is a native of Tobago and Venezuela, but is not found in Trinidad. It is the only game bird on the island of Tobago, and is referred to as the Tobago Pheasant. It is about the size of a common fowl, brownish in colour with a long tail. They go about in flocks of about six (6) and their quaint calls can be heard especially on early mornings and late evenings.

Both birds are featured on the Coat of Arms of Trinidad and Tobago, and are protected by law.



I remember back in the day when I lived in Diego Martin, a new family moved into the neighbourhood. It had a tree close by where the hummingbirds gathered by the dozens. Then the two boys from this family take out their sling shots and start to shot indiscriminately into the tree. Together, they killed over 10 birds. To this day, I wished that I had spoken up. But then again, i might have gotten beat up - they were bigger than me.



Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

 

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