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Animal Themes
Birds

Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.88

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    remarkable, bingo, hummingbird, mid-air, relationship, stunts, based, species, daytime, fliers, lowest, rate, upper, indeed, male, furthermore
     content words:    North America, Mississippi River, South America

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Other Languages
     Spanish: Los Colibríes

Hummingbirds   
1     In the Americas, there lives a remarkable, petite bird that loves to "sing" with its wings. Okay, "sing with its wings" is an exaggeration; however, when the bird flies, it beats its wings so fast that it makes a humming sound as if it is singing with its wings. Do you know what bird is this? That's right, it is the hummingbird.
 
2     There are 320 different species of hummingbirds in the world. Here in North America, we have 24 species of hummingbirds, and the ruby-throated hummingbird is the only one that breeds east of the Mississippi River.
 
3     Hummingbirds are tiny. The bee hummingbird of Cuba is not only the smallest of all hummingbirds, but also the smallest of all birds on Earth. With a body length of about 2.25 inches and a weight of 0.07 ounces (2 grams), the bee hummingbird is indeed not much bigger than a bee. Even the largest hummingbird, the giant hummingbird of South America, is just 8 inches long and weighs 0.70 ounces (20 grams).

Paragraphs 4 to 6:
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