Hummingbird eggs are about the size of a jellybean or blueberry, weighing less than a gram. The mother lays two at a time in a nest no bigger than a golf ball, made from spider silk, plant fibers, and lichen. The silk allows the nest to stretch as chicks grow.

Though they weigh less than a nickel, hummingbirds are the world’s smallest migrating birds. Some species can fly 600 miles nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico. They migrate alone, with males often going first, and can enter torpor—a temporary energy-saving state—along the way.

They also have some remarkable talents: hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backward and have the largest brain-to-body ratio of any bird. A Ruby-throated Hummingbird may visit over 1,000 flowers a day, lapping up nectar with its tongue about 13 times per second.