It’s about 3 inches long and weighs as much as a penny. But a calliope hummingbird is a tough little bird. It can fly up to 5,600 miles in a year. Despite its tiny stature, the smallest bird native to ...

Measuring a mere 3 inches long and weighing one-tenth of an ounce, roughly the same as a table tennis ball, the Calliope hummingbird is incredibly tiny. In fact, Eric Rasmussen, avian scientist at the ...

A few months ago, I wrote a column about the largest birds in our area. It’s easy for everyday people to think of birds in everyday terms, dismissing sparrows and blackbirds as insubstantial and ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. A 2020 study published in Science Advance reveals just how ...