Talk:Southern giant hummingbird

long bill makes the bird slender?
i'm no ornithologist, but i'm wondering how this bird's long bill helps make it "slender."

seems to me that they are two different things.

2601:18A:8100:9BDA:4003:D0E5:66DB:FC4C (talk) 01:13, 9 August 2015 (UTC) Michael Christian

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Edits
I've tried to tighten up this very informative article. Much of what I did is just copyediting. However, there was a lot of useful, scholarly, well-referenced material that applies to hummingbirds generally but really doesn't belong in the P. gigas article. In theory it should go in the main Hummingbird article, but it mostly seems to be info that is already included there. I haven't checked exhaustively, so I'm stashing it below for safekeeping in case anyone wants to reuse some or all of it elsewhere:

Hummingbird skeletal anatomy is different to that of a traditional forward flying bird, with elongated hand bones, shortened humerus and forearm bones, thickened wing bones to support straight wing beating, and re-design of the shoulder joint to accommodate the rotation of the humerus, allowing production of thrust on back strokes.

The cellular anatomy of hummingbird's flight musculature is very similar to other small bird species, all their flight muscles are composed of only fast oxidative glycolytic muscle fibres which allow the sustained high frequency wing beats typically seen in these birds. These muscle fibres are filled with mitochondria (around 50% of volume) enabling high frequency wing beats to be sustained over extended periods using oxidative energy. A very well developed pathway that transports sugars to the muscles for use very efficiently supports these mitochondria: hummingbirds are also thought to be able to oxidise dietary fructose directly without the additional step of converting it to glucose. These factors combine to allow hummingbirds to consume oxygen at the highest known rate (over 5x the rate of dogs). Hummingbirds also have a higher amount of this energy thirsty muscle type elsewhere in their skeletal musculature, this is thought to help them combat loss of heat to the environment due to large surface area/volume ratio.

Additionally, hummingbirds have developed two useful physiological responses that allow them to survive in harsher temperatures and environments that are lacking or devoid of food for extended periods. They can enter a resting hypothermic state to conserve energy but be able to respond to external stimuli, or are even able to reduce their body temperature and enter torpor for hours on end. This reduces their metabolic rate and allows great energy conservation in extreme circumstances. Hovering flight metabolic demand has sculpted even the genome of hummingbirds; they maintain the smallest genomes among birds.

Though there is a report of a nesting Broad-tailed hummingbird that sustained itself for several days only upon arthropods, and this suggests that insects may have a larger part in hummingbird diet in some instances than previously thought. Supporting this is the fact that hummingbirds have evolved the ability to bend their mandibular bone midway down, manipulate their bottom jaw laterally and snap their jaw shut faster to accommodate better capture of flying insects.

The majority of flowers visited by hummingbirds are reported as being red in colour. This has traditionally been thought to be due to hummingbird preferencing red that dictated the evolution of the flowers it visits and pollinates, however this view has not been well backed in experimental findings, instead it is hypothesised that hummingbird flowers are red as a form of communication that allows easy identification of the best flowers for a bird to visit when it is travelling through new areas, a symbiotic advantage.

Incubation is a particularly tricky stage for hummingbirds, with their small body mass and high energy requirements they need to leave the nest more regularly than most land birds. However, their eggs have adapted to be resilient to temporary significant fluctuations in temperature (one record shows an egg dropping to 14.5 degrees Celsius) so long as the average temperature stays at an acceptable range. They can even maintain a hypothermic or torpid state at night to save their own energy reserves but keep the egg somewhat stable. Hummingbirds have the highest amount of feathers per surface area which allows them exceptional insulation that is no doubt useful during this taxing incubation that tends to last 15–22 days depending on species. Nestling period lasts between 18–26 days for hummingbirds.

Research in general bird reproductive trends has shown that Southern Hemisphere birds on average show smaller clutches than northern ones. There is much speculation behind why this is the case, but there is no agreed upon current theory as of yet.

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 23:56, 25 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Peru - Giant Hummingbird - Patagona gigas 01.jpg

FYI
This article might need an update, the Northern giant hummingbird article was just created, another member of the same genus. Regards Hughesdarren (talk) 08:34, 20 May 2024 (UTC)