Zunzuncito. The smallest bird in the world - 4K - "Chino Zapata" Bird Guide Photographer

Zunzuncito. The smallest bird in the world.
Chino Zapata Bird Guide Photographer
© 2021 Chino Zapata
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The "zunzuncito", hummingbird or fly bird, or bee elf (Mellisuga helenae) is the smallest species of hummingbirds and birds in general. It lives only in Cuba.
It was discovered by the German naturalist and scientist Juan Cristóbal Gundlach in 1844. It was made known for the first time in the book "Las Aves de Cuba", written by the Galician naturalist and professor Juan Lembeye in 1850. The scientific name Mellisuga refers to his habits of sucking honey or nectar, and helenae Helena Booth, wife of Carlos Booth, Gundlach's fellow student in Germany, who invited and lodged him in Cuba to study the country's fauna.
The male, smaller than the female, has a bright red head and neck, a metallic blue back and wings, and a greyish white chest and abdomen. The female, on the other hand, has a bluish-green color with white on the chest and abdomen, and has white spots on the tip of the tail. She measures around 5.5-6.1 cm from beak to tail, and weighs about 1.8 g. Its nest is barely 3 cm in diameter, making it the smallest of all bird nests. The male of the species is the smallest warm-blooded vertebrate animal in the world. It is more likely to be mistaken for a bee than a bird, due to its small size.
In flight, it flaps its wings about 80 times per second, which allows it to stay in the air in the same position for a long time; in this way it is able to suck the nectar from the flowers, without the need to lean on them, or on branches.
Its beak is black and very fine; the tongue is extremely thin and long, which it introduces inside the flowers to feed. It has the second fastest heart rate of all animals, and it is the bird with the fewest feathers. Its body temperature is 40 ° C, the highest of all birds, while at night it drops to 19 ° C to save energy. The "zunzuncito" consumes half its weight in food and up to 8 times its weight in water during a day. Their diet is mainly based on nectar and insects.
The zunzuncito, an endemic bird of Cuba, is located in the Guanahacabibes Peninsula, Sierra de Anafe, Zapata Peninsula, Jucaro and in several mountainous areas of the east of the country, especially Cochillas del Toa and Sierra Cristal and south of the island. Youth or Isle of Pines.
Animalia Kingdom
Edge: Chordata
Class: Birds
Order: Trochiliformes
Family: Trochilidae
Genus: Mellisuga
Species: M. helenae
Lembeye, 1850
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Chapters:
00:00 Start
01:39 Hummingbird varieties
02:54 Distribution and ecosystem
05:07 Height of nests
05:31 Nest construction
07:20 Theft of materials
07:50 Dimensions and morphology of the nests
08:20 Male role
09:04 Egg laying
10:07 Zunzuncito eggs
10:19 Pigeons
11:02 Flight of the zunzuncito
11:58 Feeding the zunzuncito
12:59 Predators of the zunzuncito
14:01 Rain and nests
15:22 Cleaning the zunzuncito
16:13 Chicks at 14-16 days. Flight practice
16:58 Departure from the nest
17:52 Use of the nests
18:11 Conclusions and environmental awareness
20:02 Final credits
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Research, documentation and filming: Orestes Martínez (El Chino Zapata)
cubabirdguide....
Video montage and sound postproduction: Manuel Maneiro
/ @permaculturagalicia
Music: Artlist (License Number 146694)
artlist.io/Man...
Voiceover: El Chino Zapata
cubabirdguide....
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Chino Zapata Bird Guide Photographer
cubabirdguide....
#hummingbirds #birdphotography #wildlifephotography