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This week\u2019s episode is about the world\u2019s tiniest birds, the hummingbird! Thanks to Tara for the suggestion!\n\nThe bee hummingbird:\n\n\n\nThe giant hummingbird:\n\n\n\nThe giant giant hummingbird:\n\n\n\nIf you\u2019re interested in my little side project, Real Life Cooking Podcast, here\u2019s the URL (or you can just search for it in your regular podcast app): https://reallifecooking.blubrry.net/\n\nShow transcript:\n\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\n\nThis week is another listener suggestion, this one from Tara! Tara\u2019s favorite bird is the hummingbird, and I can\u2019t believe I didn\u2019t know that before she texted me, because I\u2019ve known Tara for a long long time and in fact she is married to my brother. Tara, I hope you are ready for hummingbird-themed birthday gifts for the rest of your life!\n\nThe smallest birds in the world are hummingbirds, but not all hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world. If that makes sense. The very smallest hummingbird, and definitely the smallest bird alive today and possibly alive ever, is the bee hummingbird.\n\nThe bee hummingbird is literally the size of a bee. Males are slightly smaller than females and barely grow more than two inches long, or 5.5 cm, from the tip of its long bill to the end of its tail. It weighs less than an ounce, or 2 grams. A penny weighs more than this bird does.\n\nThe bee hummingbird lives in Cuba and parts of the West Indies. Males are iridescent green and blue while females are more green and gray. During the breeding season, in spring and early summer, males also have red or pink spots on the head and throat.\n\nJust like other birds, the bee hummingbird builds a nest and lays one or two eggs. The female takes care of the eggs and babies by herself. But her nest is so incredibly small! It\u2019s barely an inch across, or 2.5 cm, lined with soft items like dandelion fluff and cobwebs. And the bee hummingbird\u2019s eggs are the size of peas. I have some peas in my lunch today. Peas are really small. Can you imagine the smallness of an egg the size of a pea, and the smallness of the baby that hatches from the egg? I just died. I literally just died because it\u2019s so cute and tiny I can\u2019t stand it. Don\u2019t worry, I came back to life to finish telling you about hummingbirds.\n\nThe largest hummingbird is called the giant hummingbird. It\u2019s just over 9 inches long, or 23 cm, which sounds enormous, especially compared to the bee hummingbird. But keep in mind that its long bill is included in that length, so if you go by actual body size it\u2019s only about the size of a sparrow. It has relatively long, pointed wings and sometimes actually glides instead of flapping its wings, which is practically unheard-of among hummingbirds. The giant hummingbird lives in the Andes Mountains in western South America, with some populations even living in high altitudes where the air is thinner. You know the so-called Nazca lines, the giant geoglyphs created by the ancient Nazca people that are shaped like animals? One of the geoglyphs is a hummingbird that\u2019s 305 feet long, or 93 meters. It\u2019s based on the giant hummingbird that lives in the area, so I guess you could say it\u2019s a GIANT giant hummingbird.\n\n*rimshot!* [it\u2019s actually called a sting, and I played this one myself. Years of drum lessons have finally paid off!]\n\nAll hummingbirds are specialized to eat nectar from flowers. A hummingbird has a long, slender bill that can reach down into a flower to get at the nectar. In the process, the hummingbird gets pollen on its feathers that it then transfers to the next flowers it visits, helping pollinate the flowers. So the hummingbird gets a good meal and the flowers get pollinated, so everyone wins. Some hummingbird species have co-evolved with certain plant species so that only the bird can reach the nectar and only the bird can pollinate the flowers.\n\nBut the hummingbird\u2019s bill isn\u2019t a straw. It can open its bill just like other birds,