Tiny Bird With a Big Story

Hummingbirds have many challenges – they are tiny and yet need to be some of the toughest birds out there. They live in conditions where eeking out a living can be a challenge – especially when you have to feed at frequent intervals just to keep going. In the cloud forests of Peru, there is a hummingbird – the male of which has a tail that defies all probabilities of flight. The Spatuletail Hummingbird’s tail appears to give no benefit to flight which is key to how we think about hummingbird aerodynamics. The BBC filmed the mating displays of this amazing little bird struggling to impress a female. Sometimes the truth is even more interesting than anything you could ever make up.

Photo Credit: BBC