hummingbird

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Any of numerous birds of the family Trochilidae found throughout the Americas, usually very small in size and having brilliant iridescent plumage, a long slender bill, and wings capable of beating very rapidly, thereby enabling the bird to hover.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A bird whose wings, by their rapid vibration, make a humming sound; any bird of the family Trochilidæ.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun (Zoöl.) any bird of the family Trochilidæ, of which over one hundred genera are known, including about four hundred species. They are found only in America and are most abundant in the tropics. They are mostly of very small size with long slender bills adapted to sucking nectar from flowers, and are noted for the very brilliant iridescent colors of their plumage and their peculiar habit of hovering about flowers while vibrating their wings very rapidly with a humming noise; the wings are specialized for hovering flight, but they can also dart forward and fly quite rapidly. They feed both upon the nectar of flowers and upon small insects. The common humming bird or ruby-throat of the Eastern United States is Trochilus colubris. Several other species are found in the Western United States. See calliope, and ruby-throat.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Any of various small American birds in the family Trochilidae that have the ability to hover.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun tiny American bird having brilliant iridescent plumage and long slender bills; wings are specialized for vibrating flight