hummingbird

Etymology

From humming (noun) + bird, in reference to the humming sound made by the rapidly moving wings.

noun

1. Any of various small American birds in the family Trochilidae that have the ability to hover.
   Soon I hear the low all-pervading hum of an approaching hummingbird circling above the rock, … 1857 Thoreau, Henry David, journal entry, May 29, 1857. From Thoreau on Birds: notes on New England birds from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau, Boston: Beacon Press, 1993, p238. (Originally published as the anthology Thoreau's bird-lore, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910, edited by Francis H. Allen.)