Hummingbirds build velvety, compact cups with spongy floors and elastic sides that stretch as their young grow. They weave together twigs, plant fibers, and bits of leaves, and use spider silk as threads to bind their nests together and anchor them to the foundation.

The female hummingbird lays two white eggs, which are the smallest eggs laid by any bird. Occasionally, a female hummingbird will lay only one egg but it is extremely rare for her to lay more than two. The eggs of most hummingbird species are about the size of peas or jellybeans.

Hummingbirds aren't the only birds that are iridescent, meaning that when light strikes their feathers it is scattered to create a lustrous glint that changes depending on the viewing angle. This effect is very similar to the sheen you see on oil films, mother of pearl, and soap bubbles.

A hummingbird eats about half of its body weight in sugar daily and may have a meal up to every ten minutes. In eight hours, that bird could have up to forty-eight small meals!

Unlike most hummingbirds, the green-crowned brilliant almost always perches to feed.

In addition to nectar, hummingbirds eat a variety of insects, including mosquitoes, fruit flies, gnats, aphids, and spiders. They sometimes hover within insect swarms in a method called "hover-hawking" to facilitate feeding.