A Hummingbird Heart Rate Is Extremely Rapid!
The hummingbird heart rate is just as amazing as is every other fact about this tiniest of birds. The hummingbird heart rate can vary from about 250 beats per minute, when the hummingbird is resting, to about 1200 beats per minute when the hummingbird is feeding. The fastest hummingbird heart rate ever measured was 1260 beats per minute, and was measured in a Blue-throated Hummingbird.
During torpor, a condition that hummingbirds enter into at night, to conserve energy while they sleep, the hummingbird heart rate can drop to as low as 50-180 beats per minute. This necessary drop in the hummingbird heart rate, will allow them to survive the night, until they once again resume feeding in the morning. Without this ability to slow their heart rate and metabolism, the hummingbird would starve to death before morning. Nature only allows them the ability to store just enough energy to survive the night.
I hope you enjoyed this article on hummingbird heart rate.
