Bird Quiz
Hummingbird
With a tiny body that never stops beating its wings, you show rather than tell — and you think nothing of going far.
Hummingbirds live only in the Americas. The smallest, the bee hummingbird, is only about 5 cm long. They beat their wings dozens of times a second, hover in one spot in midair to sip nectar from flowers, and are known as birds that can even fly backward.
The ruby-throated hummingbird of North America flies south in the fall, and some are said to cross the Gulf of Mexico without stopping. On ordinary days they make the rounds of hundreds of flowers, and at night they lower their body temperature to save energy. You get far by piling up small movements, one after another.
The name comes from the humming sound of its wings. Hummingbirds are better known for that sound and for the steep dives of their courtship displays than for their calls. Your body moves before the words come, and you get things across by showing them. Because of that, the people around you can't always see what you're thinking as you go.
Strengths
- You can try out an idea right away, on a small scale
- You can get to faraway places without much fuss
- You can get things across by showing them rather than explaining
Where you may stumble
- Busy moving around, you forget to make time to rest
- Working away in silence, you get asked, “What are you doing?”
- In a discussion, the talk moves on before your thoughts turn into words
Sounds familiar, Hummingbird?
- When someone asks you for directions, you've started walking them there before you've explained anything
- On a day out, you look up and realize you've popped into shop after shop for a few minutes each
- Even while watching TV, your hands are busy with something else
Where you shine
Fiddly errands in faraway places, or jobs where showing beats explaining. These are the moments when people count on how light on your feet you are.
Tips for “Hummingbird”
- Before you get moving, say in a word what you're about to do
- Decide in advance when in the day you'll stop and rest your hands
- After showing how, add a quick line about why you did it that way
Matches
See every match in the Bird Quiz compatibility chart →
Swallow — The Swallow is another bird that makes long journeys in spring and fall. You both take off as soon as an idea strikes, so the moment a destination comes up, it's settled on the spot: “Let's go, then.”
Woodpecker — In North America, hummingbirds are said to sometimes come to sip the sap that seeps from small holes woodpeckers have drilled in trees. Being near the hard-working Woodpecker makes a good stopover for a Hummingbird on the move.
Black Kite — The Black Kite waits for the wind, then circles wide and calls in a carrying voice. Its timing and its way of communicating are both the reverse of the Hummingbird's — flapping nonstop and moving without a word — so it's hard to read each other's plans.
Close neighbors
These differ from this one on just 1 of the 3 axes. If one of your axes was near the middle, you may have their side too.
Which one are you? 18 everyday situations, about 3 minutes.
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