Each chapter of “Shadow Swans” begins with a hummingbird fact. Just like Ruby, I am fascinated by hummingbirds, and I think that they are a perfect analogy for Ruby herself. Hummingbirds are small, easy to miss, and by some measures (i.e. the grand scale of nature), they might seem insignificant. But in fact, they are incredibly powerful, big-brained, unique, and integral to the ecosystem. They have abilities that other birds don’t have, and they are relentless in their pursuit of survival. Ruby, too, is small and easy to miss, but she is passionate and powerful and crafty. And like the hummingbirds that she sculpts, Ruby is drawn to beauty, although her concept of “beauty” is much different from everyone else’s.

Hummingbirds use stolen spider webs to help build their nests.

A ruby-throated hummingbird weighs as much as a penny.

If continuously active, a hummingbird can starve to death in 2 hours.

To hover, hummingbirds move their wings in a figure 8.

A hummingbird may eat twice its body weight in a single day.

The hummingbird is so small that one of its natural enemies is an insect, the praying mantis.

If a hummingbird were the size of a human being, it would need to consume 150,000 calories per day to survive.

A hummingbird’s body temperature is about 107 degrees Fahrenheit.

A hummingbird eats more insects when it rains.

Hummingbirds can’t smell.

A hummingbird can dive at 60 mph.

Hummingbird females raise their young without the help of a mate.

Hummingbirds can fly upside-down.

Relative to their body size, male Anna’s hummingbirds are the fastest moving vertebrates.

If a hummingbird doesn’t find enough food during the day, it can slow its metabolism at night to 1/50 its normal rate, and its body temperature can drop more than 20 degrees.

It takes only 10 minutes for the remains of some ingested insects to pass through the hummingbird’s body.

A mother hummingbird can manage more than one nest simultaneously. She can build one nest while caring for her babies in another.

Hummingbirds camouflage their nests.

Hummingbird males do not go near the nests. Their bright colors might attract attention and danger to the fledglings.

A Hummingbird breathes 250 times per minute.

Some hummingbirds migrate 2000 miles, from Alaska to Mexico. That’s over 40 million body lengths. To travel that far, relatively, a human would have to travel 50,000 miles – twice all the way around the Earth, at the Equator.

A hummingbird’s wings can beat 80 times per second.

Some hummingbirds bathe in large leaves that have collected moisture.

A hummingbird’s brain, relative to its body size, is the largest of any bird.

Hummingbirds leave the nest after about three weeks.

A hummingbird can barely walk.

Some plants are pollinated exclusively by hummingbirds.

In Aztec mythology, the god of war, death and sun is often described as a hummingbird.