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How fast do hummingbird wings flap?

Remember yesterday, when I told you about the hummingbird I was too tired to paint? Well here he is! In all of his ruby-throated glory... beating his wings at a staggering 200 beats per second (during courtship).


That being said, I struggled choosing a source for this Daily Doodle. Most sites list several different speeds depending on the type of hummingbird, which make sense to me. The giant hummingbird shouldn't beat it's wings as fast as a smaller hummingbird, right? But most of those sites, including the first site I believed to be reliable (National Park Services) mention the quickest wing beat being only 80 beats per minute. Now, I really wanted to go with the NPS because the hummingbird in question was the Amethyst Woodstar hummingbird ... cue angels singing, beautiful name and color... however the information wasn't dated nor did it have a copyright date, so I felt the 2003 Guinness Book of World Records record of 200 beats per minute by the ruby-throated hummingbird had to be the answer.


Now, I say it had to be the answer even though it also stated this 200 beats per minute was "opposed to the normal 90 beats per second produced by all other hummingbirds" which I wasn't sold on... plus, the record was dated December 10, 2003... in Canada... when mating season was listed March - July... so I don't know why the record would be listed as December if mating season is spring and summer... and what hummingbird do you know of is hanging out in Canada in December? But, I'm telling myself it was when it was finalized, and it's a trustworthy source or else we're going to have even more issues than when Pluto was no longer a planet. I mean seriously, can you imagine if we found out Guinness Book of World Records was just a farce?! No thanks, I'm not going there if I don't have to.


This is just one of several Daily Doodles which will have varying information after Googling and will leave me trying to decide which source to select. Ultimately, I will spend as much time as I feel I can before selecting the source and will certainly divulge the information to you through my daily blog posts about the way the Daily Doodle panned out.





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