Bee Hummingbird. James Bloor Griffiths/Shutterstock.com
While you likely knew about the largest bird in the world before reading this article, you probably aren’t as familiar with the smallest. Weighing less than two paperclips, the bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) proudly takes this superlative. Though small, the bee hummingbird is far from powerless. In fact, these wee, buzzy birds consume half their body weight in food every day, pollinating upwards of 1,500 flowers each day. All that work takes some energy. Relative to their size, bee hummingbirds burn the daily energy equivalent to a human running ten marathons!
Native Distribution
Cuba and surrounding islands
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