By weight, the Bee Hummingbird of Cuba is the lightest, weighing around 1.6 to 2.0 grams. It has a length of about 5.5 cm – still a bit bigger than the largest bee species, Wallace’s Giant Bee, whose females have a length of about 3.8 cm.
Predictably, the heaviest is the Ostrich, weighing about 100-160 kg and reaching a height of up to 2.7 meters. It can be found in Africa. While it is flightless, it compensates for that by being the fastest runner among all birds, reaching speeds of about 70 km/h. That is almost twice the speed of the fastest humans.
Photos taken from Pexels
Kai has been living in Shanghai for 21 years. He only became interested in birds in China – so he is much more familiar with birds in China than with those in Germany. While he will only ever be an average birder, he aims to be a good bird photographer and has created a website with bird photos as proof. He hopes not too many clients of his consulting company read this blog, as they will doubt his dedication to providing consulting services related to China`s chemical industry. Whenever he wants to shock other birders, he tells them his (indoor) cats can distinguish several warblers by taste.
Part of the fascination of birds has to be the huge variety of species, from tiny to huge. Evolution is a marvellous thing.