[Seany (OP)]

Hummingbird
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hummingbirds are birds of the family Trochilidae, and are native only to the Americas. They are known for their ability to hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings 15–80 times per second (depending on the species).

How on earth are they able to maintain the flapping of 15-80 flaps per second??
Why don't they just flap less, like a normal bird, and eat less nectar??

[LeeE]

They can flap so fast because they are very small.  Hummingbirds need to be able to hover very accurately and flapping at higher speeds increases the accuracy with which they can hover - once the hummingbird detects any drift it can't effectively start to correct it until the next flap, so a higher flap rate means a faster response against a smaller error, requiring a smaller correction.  A slower flap rate means a greater delay before the correction can be started, which in turn means that the error will have grown even larger, requiring a greater correction.

[blakestyger]

A tiny bird like that would have to take in proportionally a lot more calories than a larger bird because their area/volume ratio is higher and they stand to lose more heat at night when they are not feeding.
This doesn't account for the high flap rate but it might for the high feeding rate.

[SquarishTriangle]

They hibernate at night, don't they?

[Alan McDougall]

It is all about amazing conservation and use of energy exactly when needed.