The hummingbird

We were out in the school ground this week studying trees when one of my students found a dead hummingbird. 

Small and lifeless it lay as we all gathered around it feeling so sorry and wondering what had happened to it. We picked it upon a cardboard paper and took it inside for further investigation.



The next day three students started their inquiry and found out that these very tiny beautiful birds are the only ones who can fly backwards!!! 

Because hummingbirds can rotate their wings in a circle, they are the only birds that can fly forwards, backwards, up, down, sideways and hover in mid air.

The rapid beating of the hummingbirds wings (60 to 80 beats per second) makes the distinctive humming sound from which they get their name. 

They have a lifespan of four to eleven years.