The bird whose heart beats 1,200 times a minute
This bird's heart beats over 1,200 times a minute — and it nearly dies every single night.
The short version
A hummingbird's heart can beat over 1,200 times a minute and its wings flap up to 80 times a second; it's the only bird that can fly backwards and hover. It eats constantly, and at night enters torpor, dropping its heart rate and temperature so low it appears dead until morning.
Why it's so weird
- ✓The Hummingbird has a heart that can beat over 1,200 times every minute.
- ✓The Hummingbird is the only bird that can truly fly backwards and hover perfectly in place.
- ✓The Hummingbird flaps its wings up to 80 times a second, so fast they blur into a hum.
- ✓The Hummingbird eats almost nonstop, visiting hundreds of flowers a day and nearly doubling its weight in nectar.
- ✓The Hummingbird drops into a deep state called torpor at night, lowering its heart rate and temperature so much it looks completely dead until morning.
The full story
This tiny bird has a heart that can beat over twelve hundred times every minute. Meet the hummingbird, a creature living life at an absolutely impossible speed. Its wings flap up to eighty times every second, so fast they blur into a hum, and it is the only bird that can truly fly backwards and even hover perfectly in place. All that power burns enormous energy, so it has to eat almost constantly, visiting hundreds of flowers a day and nearly doubling its weight in nectar. But here is the strange part. At night, when the food runs out, it cannot survive its own racing metabolism. So it enters a deep state called torpor, dropping its heart rate and body temperature so low that it looks completely dead, until the morning sun slowly brings it back to life. Follow for more weird animal facts.
Watch the 45-second version
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