By Larry Halverson/Friends of Kootenay

Susie MacDonald sent another interesting photo taken this morning in Kimberley. She calls it a “Hummer Bummer.” I’m sure the hummingbirds, along with locals, were not expecting to wake up to snow (May 22).

For us we just put on a sweater or coat to meet the cold but for hummingbirds it is a different story. These birds can rapidly lose body heat to their surroundings because of their small size and the lack of insulating downy feathers that are typical for many other bird species. So to survive the cold temperatures particularly at night when they can’t forage they go into a torpor, a type of deep sleep. Researchers say hummingbirds can keep up the energy demands by lowering their metabolic rate by as much as 95% which means a lot less energy is needed to survive the cold.

Black-chinned Humming Bird feeding by Susie MacDonald

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