Flying in the fast lane

There's no question - one of the coolest facts about hummingbirds is that they can fly forward, backward, sideways and upside down! A hummingbird can hover over a feeder or flower while drinking nectar seemingly suspended in space. Zipping in and out, hummingbirds are the ace-fliers of the bird world. No other bird can fly like a hummer can... but how?

There are two physiological characteristics of the hummingbird that allow it to do their spectacular aerial maneuvers: 1. the hummingbird's pectoral muscles account for 30% of their body weight and 2. the hummingbird can move it's wings in a circular motion.

Pectoral muscles in birds are best known as the breast - and in most breeds the pectoral percentage is about 15-25% of the bird's total weight. Human pectoral muscles are much less developed than birds' - our main muscle groups are in our quadriceps (our legs and buttocks - which is why we walk and don't fly). Even the bulked up physiques of body builders don't hold a candle to the "pec power" of birds. Arnold Schwartzenegger at his chest-popping Mr. Universe best had pectoral muscles at least 7 times weaker than a hummingbird! So much for the Governator...

Since hummingbirds can move their wings in a circle, they are able to get lift and thrust in both directions of their wings. Average birds flap their wings to get lift (upward motion) and thrust (forward motion). Hummingbirds rotate their wings to get lift both upward and downward and thrust both forward and backward. To hover, hummingbirds move their wings in a figure eight movement - the same way you'd move your arms while treading water.

As if their normal flying feats weren't enough, hummingbirds can also fly upside down! To evade other flying predators like hawks and owls the hummingbird can fly short distances completely inverted. Fast thinking and fast acting are the key to the hummingbird's success in out-maneuvering much larger and fiercer birds.


Hummingbirds are definitely built for speed, and the smaller the species the faster their wing beats actually are. Magnificent hummingbirds (E. Fulgen or Rivoli's hummingbird) fly the slowest of all hummingbirds, with 10-15 wing beats per second. Ruby-throat and Rufous hummingbirds average around 53 wing beats per second. The Bumblebee hummingbird (Atthis Heliosa) is the world's smallest bird and their wing beats are more than 80 per second! Hummingbirds fly around 27 miles per hour, but have been clocked at doing up to 45-50 MPH. That's twice as fast as the fastest human can run.