Which bird can fly backwards?

The hummingbird is correct — it can fly backwards and even hover in place, beating its wings up to 80 times every second, which is what lets it stay perfectly still in front of a flower while sipping nectar.

Eagles are powerful soaring birds and penguins can't fly at all, swimming instead — neither one shares the hummingbird's unique ability to hover and reverse direction in midair.

Hummingbirds also have incredibly fast heartbeats and need to eat huge amounts of nectar relative to their tiny size just to fuel all that rapid wing-beating.