• A female hummingbird builds her nest from plant fibers and bark, then wraps it together with spiderweb silk and camouflages it with lichens and moss. She lines the nest with thistledown or wool before laying two tiny eggs. To approximate the size of the nest, place two Tic Tac mints in the bowl of a tablespoon.
• The buzz that a hummingbird makes comes from the speed of its beating wings (up to 80 times a second). To help your child gauge just how fast that is, ask her to clap her hands as many times as possible for one minute. Then divide that number by 60.
•Every fall, northern hummingbirds migrate south to spend a warm winter. Some travel down the West Coast from as far away as southern Canada; others from New England fly across the Gulf of Mexico nonstop, averaging 25 miles per hour for 20 hours. For fun, use an atlas to trace their flight patterns.
