Hummingbirds feed on nectar — the sweet liquid inside flowers. They hover in front of a flower, push their long curved beak inside, and drink using a specially shaped tongue that flicks in and out up to 20 times per second, lapping up nectar very quickly. In return for this meal, the bird picks up pollen and carries it to the next flower, helping plants reproduce. It is a perfect partnership.
To fuel all that wing-beating and hovering, hummingbirds need to eat a huge amount. They may visit hundreds of flowers a day and consume up to twice their body weight in nectar. To survive the night when they cannot feed, some species go into a state called torpor — a deep, sleep-like rest where they slow their heartbeat and breathing right down to save energy, almost like a daily mini-hibernation.
The colours of hummingbirds are astonishing. Many Ecuadorian species have feathers that shimmer and change colour depending on the angle of the light — greens that flash into gold, blues that turn purple, and reds that seem to glow. These colours are not from pigments like most bird feathers, but from microscopic structures on the feathers that scatter light like tiny prisms.
Ecuador's cloud forests and Andes mountain slopes are particularly rich in hummingbird species. Some, like the sword-billed hummingbird, have beaks longer than their own bodies — perfectly shaped to reach deep into long tube-shaped flowers that other birds cannot access. It is one of nature's most precise matches between a bird and a plant.