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Hummingbird Sleep
Hummingbirds sleep a special way. Hummingbirds sleep in a
hibernation
like state called "Torpor". This state makes a hummingbird
extremely sluggish and very inactive. A hummingbirds metabolism
lowers to one fifteenth of it's normal body rate. It's body
temperature drops to the point of being hypothermic. In this
state their heart rate will drop to fifty beats per minute.
Hummingbirds slow their breathing to the point in which it looks as if
they have stopped breathing. Hummingbirds save sixty percent of
their energy by going into this hibernation like sleep.
Hummingbirds will look for a safe place to sleep for the night, usually on their favorite perching spot . A hummingbird female with a nest of babies, that are not ready to be on their own will go into "Torpor" sitting on the nest. The mother and babies will pull in their neck and their heads will move forward. They point their beaks up at a sharp angle and puff out their feathers looking much like a ball of cotton. Some hummingbirds have been know to sleep hanging upside down while in "Torpor". Many who have find hummingbirds in this state think they are dead, but they more than likely are just sleeping. While in this deep sleep, hummingbirds will not even move if they are touched. It is best to leave them alone. They will wake when they begin to warm up. After coming out of "Torpor" it takes a hummingbird about twenty minutes to an hour for them to gain full recovery. The first thing a hummingbird will do after waking is to find food to eat. Hummingbirds eat about twenty-five percent of their daily intake of food when they wake up. Hummingbirds that are sick or weak have been know not to live through "Torpor". Go to this web site if you would like to see photos of a hummingbird in the state of torpor: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39358890@N00/2555375271 Contents and photos may not be
copied or used without express written permission.
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