Due to their beauty, feistiness, athletic prowess, and globetrotting abilities, hummingbirds have an outsized presence per unit size. While their aerial dance moves are sublime, their life history and their day-to-day capabilities are miraculous.

Let us begin with the smallest hummingbird in the U.S. Named for the muse of eloquence and poetry who inspired classic literature books The Iliad and The Odyssey, Calliope Hummingbirds weigh as much as a ping-pong ball– a mere three grams.

Typical first look at a Calliope Hummingbird

Despite their size, Calliope Hummingbirds migrate 5,000 miles round-trip annually between their wintering grounds in Mexico’s pine-oak forests, to their breeding grounds in high meadows and open pine forests of the Western U.S. You can find Calliope Hummingbirds on the tips of bare branches in meadows east of the Cascade Mountains.They vigorously defend their territories from their stick perches, chasing away all birds ranging from American Robins to Red-tailed Hawks.

At first, they appear to be a dark blotch on the tip of a stick, but upon closer investigation through optics, they light up with a purple-colored streaky face and throat. Their gorget (throat area) resembles a tiny fluorescent purple glove with its fingers blowing in the wind — an eye-popping sight. Plus, they live in lovely places like aptly-named Calliope Corner amid towering Ponderosa Pine/Larch forests in central Oregon.

The world’s smallest hummingbird gets its name from the bumble-bee-like sound emitted from their wings when they fly. You must go to Cuba to see one because it is the only place on earth where Bee Hummingbirds exist.

Like most Hummingbirds, Bee Hummingbirds feed on a combination of nectar, insects, and spiders. They weigh less than 2 grams, roughly equivalent to the weight of a dime. Since they are endemic to Cuba, there is no need for Bee Hummingbirds to migrate. This spares them from long and perilous annual journeys that average a 50% fatality rate to all migrating bird species, including other species of hummingbirds like Rufous and Ruby-throated.

Our encounter with this charismatic micro-fauna occurred after a swim in the Bay of Pigs and a jazz concert by young Cuban musicians in Playa Larga. Within this small town lies a tiny Jardin, the size of one square block, where we saw our first Bee Hummingbird moving from a flowery shrub into a tree that was only ten feet distant. Then it flashed its crimson-colored gorget in the sun – an unforgettable image on an unforgettable day.

Although the Bee and Calliope Hummingbird are wondrous in their appearance, lifestyles, and athletic abilities, these traits are not unique to these two species. Terry Masear, author of Fastest Things on Wings: Rescuing Hummingbirds in Hollywood wrote about their amazing skills: “When going about their daily rituals of feeding and sparring, hummingbirds can fly backwards, sideways and upside down. Because they love fast-moving food, this diversity of motion is necessary for catching fruit flies that have perfected their own escape strategies. Equally important, hummingbirds’ aerial gymnastics are crucial for them to be able to feed on flowers swaying unpredictably in the wind.”

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website, Calliope Hummingbirds are fairly common and their populations appear relatively stable. Conversely, Bee Hummingbird populations are considered to be “near threatened” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

These are a few of the small wonders you experience when observing and listening to our tiniest birds. Considering their size, they deliver amazement in large doses.