Smallest bird in the world
If you are preparing for legal travel to Cuba and are interested in the birds of the country, you might want to do some research on small birds. You might be surprised to find that Cuba is home to the world’s smallest hummingbird, the Bee Hummingbird or the zunzuncito. Bee hummingbirds are the smallest known living birds in the world – being comparable in size to bumble bees and are lighter than a Canadian or U.S. penny. The body length of the Bee hummingbird is only 2.0-2.4 inches. As with any hummingbird, the Bee hummingbird is a swift, strong flier and can hover much like a helicopter. The males are smaller than the females and are more colorful with blue and green feathers and a red throat. The females are bluish green with a pale gray underside. Legal travel to Cuba can be a sticky situation to get through much like the female’s nests from cobwebs, bark and plant fibers. These nests are only 1 inch big and she lays only 2 eggs at a time which are smaller than peas. The Bee hummingbird is Near Threatened because it has a moderately small population that is declining moderately rapidly as a result of forest loss and degradation. Much of Cuba’s natural vegetation has been converted to cultivation and pasture for cattle, with only 15-20% of land remaining in its natural state and the recent expansion of cacao, coffee and tobacco production poses a further serious threat for these birds. These forms of human encroachment have negatively impacted on the subtropical and tropical forests and swamplands that sustain the Bee Hummingbird, causing the bird to be confined to limited suitable habitats. Legal travel to Cuba to study these birds would be beneficial for them and we might be able to figure out a way to better preserve the natural habitat of the Bee hummingbird before it is too late.
