The hummingbird possesses one of the fastest metabolisms in the animal kingdom, burning fuel at a rate up to 100 times greater than that of an elephant. This intense biological engine powers their unique flight capability, allowing them to hover and fly backward with wingbeats reaching up to 80 times per second. Because they live constantly on the edge of starvation, their diet must be calorie-dense and consumed almost continuously throughout the day. To sustain this high-octane lifestyle, they often eat two to three times their own body weight daily, requiring a specialized diet that extends far beyond the simple sugar water often associated with the bird.
Nectar: The Primary Fuel Source
Nectar serves as the hummingbird’s primary source of rapidly digestible carbohydrates, functioning essentially as fuel for their high-speed metabolism. This sugary liquid provides the immediate energy needed to maintain their body temperature and activity throughout the daylight hours. Hummingbirds consume this liquid frequently, taking up to 48 small meals in an eight-hour period, with a single bird visiting hundreds of individual flowers daily.
The birds prefer flowers that offer the most efficient reward, typically seeking long, tubular blooms that shield the nectar from insect competitors. These flowers often display vibrant colors, particularly shades of red or orange, which are highly visible to the birds but less so to bees. The sugar concentration in the nectar they seek generally ranges from 10 to 35 percent, with concentrations around 20 to 25 percent being highly desirable for providing maximum energy return.
The physical mechanism for consuming this liquid relies on the bird’s unique tongue structure rather than suction. The hummingbird’s long, thin tongue is forked at the tip and covered in tiny, hair-like fringes. As the bird pushes its bill deep into the flower, the tongue rapidly laps up the nectar through capillary action.
A hummingbird can lick the nectar at an astonishing speed, sometimes up to 13 times per second while feeding. This rapid consumption is necessary to meet their high energy needs, as they must ingest enough sugar to prevent their blood glucose levels from dropping, which would quickly result in a fatal energy deficit.
Insects: Essential Protein and Nutrients
While nectar provides carbohydrates for energy, it lacks protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals, making a second food source essential for survival. Insects and spiders complement the sugar diet, providing the amino acids and micronutrients required for growth, feather maintenance, and reproduction. This protein component is particularly necessary for females during egg production and for growing nestlings, whose diet consists almost entirely of small arthropods.
Specific prey includes small, soft-bodied invertebrates like gnats, fruit flies, aphids, weevils, and small spiders. A female hummingbird can consume hundreds or even thousands of these tiny creatures daily to meet her nutritional requirements. These arthropods are captured using two primary foraging techniques that utilize the bird’s aerial agility.
One method is called “hawking,” where the bird catches flying insects mid-air, often sallying out from a perch to snap up a passing mosquito or fly. The other method is “gleaning,” which involves plucking stationary insects or spiders from leaves, bark, or spiderwebs. Hummingbirds are skilled at inspecting the base of flower petals, where small insects often hide, or foraging in the sap wells of trees.
Supplementary Wild Foods and Hydration
Hummingbirds opportunistically consume other wild foods that offer supplemental nutrients or energy when nectar is scarce. One resource is tree sap, which they access by visiting holes drilled into tree bark by sapsuckers. The sap is chemically similar to nectar, containing water and sugars, and is a welcome alternative, especially during early spring or late fall when flowers are not blooming.
Hummingbirds also consume pollen, although this is usually an accidental consequence of probing flowers for nectar. Pollen contains minor amounts of protein and fat, which may contribute marginally to their overall nutrition. The consumption of these supplementary items demonstrates the flexibility of the hummingbird’s diet, which adapts to available resources across different seasons and habitats.
While their food sources provide a significant portion of their hydration, hummingbirds actively seek out clean water for drinking and bathing. They do not typically land on open water to drink; instead, they often sip dew or rain from leaves, or bathe by flying through fine mist or the spray from dripping water sources.