National Butterfly and Hummingbird Day - Jesse Granger: Bushranger

Today is National Butterfly and Hummingbird Day!

Butterflies and hummingbirds are some of the smallest and most beautiful creatures on Earth today. Not only are they nice to look at, they are also very important to our ecosystem. Did you know that 75% of plants depend on insects and birds to pollinate them? That’s where butterflies and hummingbirds come in. When they fly onto flowers to eat their nectar, some of the plant’s pollen gets stuck to them and gets moved from plant to plant. This helps fertilize the plant to produce seeds which will eventually grow into more plants!

BUTTERFLIES

Butterflies start life as a larva and then grow into a caterpillar. After a while, the caterpillar forms into a chrysalis (or pupa). While in this stage, the caterpillar transforms and emerges from its chrysalis as a beautiful butterfly!
Butterflies have taste sensors on their feet! They use these when deciding where to lay their eggs. They taste different leaves until they find one that their newborn caterpillars will be able to munch on.
Unlike in their caterpillar stage, adult butterflies can’t bite or chew. They eat by slurping up nectar with their straw-like tongues.
Butterflies have incredible eyesight due in part to their eyes being covered in 6000 lenses. They can also see ultraviolet light!
Butterfly wings seem beautiful, but they’re actually clear! The colors and patterns you see are a result of light reflecting off of tiny scales on their wings.

HUMMINGBIRDS

Hummingbirds can’t really walk around because their feet are too small! They’ve evolved to have tiny feet so they can fly longer and farther. Their feet are mostly used for perching.
Hummingbirds have tiny hearts that beat over 1200 times per minute.
Some hummingbirds can reach a flying speed of 30 mph and a diving speed of about 50 mph! That’s pretty fast!
Newly hatched hummingbird babies are about the size of a penny.
Hummingbirds may be physically small, but they are made of mighty stuff! They are known to be one of the more aggressive bird species. They’ll fight off any bird that dares to come into its territory, no matter how big the foe might be.

I hope you enjoyed learning about butterflies and hummingbirds! If you’d like to help these creatures in their pollination journey, consider keeping a flower garden or a feeder in your yard. They’re sure to liven the place up and are wonderful company.