Callypte anna
English: Anna‘ s Hummingbird.
Clades: Trochilidae, Apodiformes, Aves.
Zoology
They live only in America from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Nowadays there are almost 340 species of hummingbirds. The name „kolibrík“ comes from Aravak name Kolibri. They are known as hummingbirds because of the humming sound created by their wings. Some are as small as a dragonfly and they can weigh from 3 to 15 grams. Their most remarkable sign is colourful metallic shining coloration which is stronger when sunlight hits the top layers of their feathers.
Humming birds fly as well as insects, their wings describe infinity sign and flap at high frequencies audible to humans. As the only birds they can fly backwards. When they pollinate the flowers, their wings flap around 50 times per second and they can fly at speed 80 km/h. At mating season the frequency rises up to 200 wing-flaps and the speed up to 150 km/h. The distance Humming bird can reach is nearly 800 km.
Humingbirds feed themselves with pollinating flowers, tiny insects and fruit pulp. Their beaks and tongues are specialized for drinking nectar from the depth of the flowers. Some species have got beaks longer than their body. Two halves of the beak have a pronounced overlap, when the hummingbird feeds on nectar, the bil is opened only slightly, so it makes a tube inside, where the tongue moves.
Some species are territorial and they try to guard food sources against different hummingbirds.
They build their nests from very light materials, as cotton threads with bits of moss and crust. The female hummingbird lays two white eggs which are in fact large to the adult hummingbird’s size. Incubation lasts about 14 days and the nestlings leave the nest after 3 or 4 weeks.
If hummingbirds are lost from the area, it ‘s a sign of disharmony and imbalance in nature.
Mythology
In mythology the hummingbird is a symbol of heart, sun, love and magic. According to Mayans legend the hummingbird belongs to new cultural epoch, to the fifth world (we live in the forth).
They are the messengers of the new world and the new light.
Calypte Anna essence – conflict between activity and rigidity..
Freedom typical for birds is, as for hummingbird expression of very happy, well-tuned smiling man, who is humming, singing, loving music. A man who plays an musical instrument and finds pleasure in music. Someone who develops his talent. Someone who has got the ability to look at the whole picture from a bird’s perspective. Someone who feels like butterfly.
Typical sign is the speed, strong activity. Doing things very fast,move fast, speak fast. Feels like doing things very quickly backwards and forwards. Big strain of energy in very good mood comes to rigidity (from hyper to torpor ). Fast rotation of moods – activity, diligence, efficiently goes to emaciation and lassitude. The inner feeling of being exhausted but physically full of energy.