How Fast Do Hummingbirds Flap Their Wings? Wingbeat Facts

How many times per second do hummingbird wings beat?

Wingbeat speed depends mostly on size: the smaller the bird and the shorter its wings, the faster they beat. Hummingbirds also speed up when they accelerate, climb or show off in courtship.

The ruby-throated hummingbird, the familiar species of eastern North America, beats its wings about 50–55 times per second while hovering at a flower and somewhat faster in quick maneuvers. That is roughly 3,000 beats every minute.

Figures of 80 to 200 beats per second are often repeated for the bee hummingbird, the world’s smallest bird, but these numbers lack careful published measurements and should be treated as estimates.

How do they flap so fast?

Hummingbird flight muscles are huge for the bird’s size, making up roughly 25–30% of body weight. The muscle that pulls the wing down is the largest, but the muscle that lifts the wing is also unusually big, because hummingbirds produce lift on the upstroke as well as the downstroke.

The wings themselves are stiff blades. The bones of the arm are very short and the wrist and elbow are held nearly fixed, so the wing pivots almost entirely at a flexible shoulder joint. Much of the motion works like a spring: the wing’s elastic recoil helps it swing back with less effort. Each stroke traces a flattened figure-eight, which is also what lets hummingbirds hover and fly backward, as explained in can hummingbirds fly backwards?

Heart rate, breathing and energy

Fast wings need a fast engine. During activity a hummingbird’s heart can beat more than 1,200 times a minute, and a ruby-throat breathes around 250 times a minute even at rest. Per gram of muscle, its oxygen use in flight is many times higher than that of an elite human athlete.

All this burns energy quickly. Hummingbirds feed every few minutes during the day, mainly on sugary nectar that their bodies can turn into flight fuel within minutes. At night they cannot eat, so many drop into torpor, letting body temperature and heart rate fall to save energy until morning.

How fast can a hummingbird fly?

In ordinary level flight, ruby-throated hummingbirds cruise at roughly 40–50 km/h (25–30 mph). Top speeds measured for several species in wind tunnels and in the field exceed 15 m/s, about 54 km/h (34 mph).

Their fastest moments come in courtship. Male Anna’s hummingbirds climb about 30 m (100 ft) and then plunge toward a female, reaching about 27 m/s, close to 100 km/h (61 mph). Relative to body size that is around 385 body lengths per second, one of the highest speeds of any vertebrate, and as the male pulls out of the dive he experiences forces of about 9 g. The fastest animals overall are compared in our list of fastest animals.

Ruby-throated males perform a similar U-shaped display dive, swinging back and forth in an arc in front of a perched female, with their wings making a rapid ticking sound at each end of the swing.

Why do hummingbirds hum?

The hum that gives hummingbirds their name comes from the wings, not the voice. Each downstroke and upstroke pushes air and creates pressure waves, and because the wings beat dozens of times a second, those pulses blend into an audible tone. Its basic pitch matches the wingbeat rate, with higher overtones that make it sound buzzy.

Different species and sexes sound different. Male ruby-throats produce a higher, thinner buzz than females, partly because of differences in the shape of their flight feathers. Some western males, such as broad-tailed and rufous hummingbirds, make a loud metallic trill with their wings in normal flight, and male Anna’s and Costa’s hummingbirds produce a sharp chirp with their tail feathers at the bottom of their dives.

The hum is not just a side effect. Other hummingbirds can hear it, and it may warn rivals that a territory owner is near.

Myths and records

Myth: Hummingbirds’ wings move in circles. The wings sweep forward and back and twist on each stroke, tracing a flattened figure-eight rather than a circle or simple up-and-down flap.

Myth: Hummingbirds never rest their wings. They perch often, and spend a large part of the day sitting still, which saves a lot of energy.

Fact: Hummingbirds are the fastest-flapping birds. No other bird group beats its wings as fast. Only some insects, such as bees and mosquitoes, flap faster, with mosquitoes reaching hundreds of beats per second.