Madera Canyon, Arizona
July 2019
Member of the Hummingbird Family
§A Hover of Hummingbirds§
~True Bird Fact~ Among the largest of the hummingbirds, it's hard for a Rivoli being this zippy and also so big. In contrast to smaller hummers, they're a bit slower, can actually glide a bit sometimes with their wings, and are more insectivorous. They also have one of the highest recorded heart rate among all vertebrates (420-1200 bpm).
Has, like, half a dozen degrees, loves going to college
Mysterious source of wealth
Names his home/boat with words that no one has any idea of the meaning of, like "Ciceronian"
Well, we've got a Eponymous bird here, and you know what that means
Francois Victor Massena, 2nd Duke of Rivoli (a 7 year old here, presumably looked older as he aged. This is the only picture I could find, sorry!)
(1799 - 1863)
Francois was the youngest child of Andres Massena, one of Napoleon's military commanders during his whole thing. His father's nickname, by the way, was "The Dear Child of Victory", which has got to be hard on a kid. Described on his Wikipedia page as an "Amateur Ornithologist" (hey, that's me!), he accumulated quite a collection of bird specimens in his lifetime. One of the finest private bird collections, the 12,500 birds were eventually sold to an American naturalist, Thomas Bellerby Wilson, and made their way to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. Combing through his collection with his cousin, Charles de Souancé, resulted in the describing of a number of new parrots (new to western science at least). You might remember Francois' wife as the source of the name for Anna's Hummingbird. A hummingbird power couple to be sure.
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