Meet The Smallest Bird On Earth
Cuba is a biodiversity hotspot and home to some of the most unique bird species in the world, including the beautiful, endangered Bee Hummingbird. Endemic to the Cuba Archipelago, the Bee Hummingbird is often found in the patchy brush and thickly grown shrubs in isolated steep-sided hills called Mogotes in eastern Cuba and in Cuba’s UNESCO Biosphere wetland reserve, the Zapata Swamp.
SMALL HUMMINGBIRD OR SMALL INSECT?
This tiny bird is as the smallest hummingbird in the world and that is not the only fascinating thing about this beautiful creature. Other small hummingbirds appear quite thin, but the Bee Hummingbird is plump, rounded, and weighs in at less than two grams. That is half the weight of any other backyard hummingbird. It’s so miniature, it is often mistaken for an insect. In fact, the Bee Hummingbird is scarcely larger than a bumblebee. The females of the species grow to 2.4 inches in length, 6cm, while the males only reach 2.2 inches in length, 5.5 cm, with a wingspan of 1.5 inches. In comparison, a cicada
We are reminiscing a lot these days about past trips and amazing experiences we have had over the past several years. Cuba is one destination that is always high on our list of most memorable trips. Everyone who has joined us in Cuba has had an incredible experience. We were able to observe a staggering number of birds during our 2017 tour to Cuba – 181 species in all! This included all the viable endemics and most of the regional endemics. One of the highlights, of course, was the must-see Bee Hummingbird, the smallest hummingbird in the world.
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19 January 2022
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