Why do hummingbirds buzz? Tiny tornadoes.

In Ecuador’s Chocó Andino de Pichincha Biosphere Reserve, a 709,192-acre biodiversity hotspot northwest of Quito, hummingbirds thrive. The country is home to roughly 132 of the world’s 320-plus hummingbird species. On a single afternoon in the reserve’s Mashpi Cloud Forest, you might see a couple dozen of these species, from tiny green thorntails to velvet-purple coronets. The brilliant-colored avians dart and whizz between feeders, flying forwards, backwards, and i