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Blue Dot: The most fascinating creature on the planet? Hummingbirds with Dr. Christopher Clark

Chris Clark gently holding an Anna's Hummingbird.
Spencer Lowell
Chris Clark gently holding an Anna's Hummingbird.

Host Dave Schlom is joined by UC Riverside biologist and hummingbird expert Christopher Clark for a fascinating and in depth look at the lives of the smallest of birds.

From their amazingly long migrations (Rufous hummingbirds travel 2,000 miles on their yearly travels from the northern parts of the US to Mexico) to their metabolisms (heart rates that range from 50 to 1200 beats per minute!) these are nature's mightiest little creatures!

We'll find out about their amazing flight mechanics that allow them to hover and dive at high speeds to their mating habits and Dr. Clark also shares some fascinating audio recordings of the sounds their wings make as well as their vocalizations.

If you've ever watched a hummingbird at a feeder in your yard and wondered about what their lives are like, you'll love this episode!

Link to the UC Riverside Animal Aeroacoustics Lab: https://animalaeroacoustics.ucr.edu/home

Dave Schlom is the longtime host and creator of Blue Dot. From surfing to Voyager in interstellar space, rock guitar to orcas in our imperiled oceans, the topics on Blue Dot are as varied as the host’s interests and connections -- which are pretty limitless! An internationally respected space history journalist, Dave is also deeply fascinated by all aspects of the grand workings of nature’s awesome machinery on scales ranging from galactic to subatomic. And topics take in all aspects of the arts and sciences.
Matt Fidler is a producer and sound designer with over 15 years’ experience producing nationally distributed public radio programs. He has worked for shows such as Freakonomics Radio, Selected Shorts, Studio 360, The New Yorker Radio Hour and The Takeaway. In 2017, Matt launched the language podcast Very Bad Words, hitting the #28 spot in the iTunes podcast charts.