A: Because they forgot the words.
--Boys’ Life Magazine
I needed some photos of hummingbirds for an article I was researching for an on-line discussion newsletter. I called around to my various friends and acquaintances in the area parks. Most, when they thought about it, were somewhat puzzled that they hadn't seen any coming to their feeders lately. One park had a few coming in but they were irregular and couldn't be counted on to make an appearance. Finally, the desk volunteer at Huntley Meadows said "Yes, we have a pair. They alternate every 5 minutes or so. I'm looking at the male now." I thanked her and tossed my stuff in the truck.
Thirty minutes later, I was set up at the feeder and waiting. Hummingbirds just materialize out of nothing. One second you are staring at an empty feeder, and the next, there it is. "Beam me down, Scottie." The male, resplendent in a carmine gorgette (the "ruby throat" of Rubythroated hummingbirds), hovered while he sipped at the 1/4 sugar to water solution. A low buzz from the wings, like a bumble bee, only more punctuated, was audible even 10 feet away where I snapped like crazy. Three or four sips later and he was off, Turing the corner of the building and disappearing like so much fairy dust.
Five minutes later, right on schedule, the female winked into existence. No ruby throat, but body shining in metallic green, she perched on the lip of the feeder and guzzled like a construction worker in a tavern.
Hummingbirds are tiny scraps of life; the Cuban Bee hummingbird, about the size of your thumb and weighing less than a penny is the world's smallest bird. The Giant hummingbird, found in the Peruvian Andes, is about the size of a starling and the Goliath of hummers. Hummingbirds only inhabit the New World and islands throughout the Caribbean have their own endemic species, such as the Jamaican Red-billed Streamertail with 8 inch tail plumes on the male (over twice the length of its body). The streamers hum during flight. The locals call it the doctor bird because the black plumes remind them of the old fashioned frock coats worn by physicians (“and the big bill”). The doctor bird is the logo for Jamaican Airways.
There are about 340 different species, though new ones are discovered almost every year. Sixteen species nest in North America, but only one, the Rubythroated hummingbird is found in the eastern half of the continent. Every year, however, we get reports of western species spending the winter in the East. One year, a Broad-billed hummingbird, usually found in the Rocky Mountains, wintered only a few blocks from our house.
Hummingbirds all have specially shaped short stubby wings that allow them to hover in place, back up, and even fly upside down. The wings cup air and provide lift on both the up stroke and down stroke; most birds’ wings only lift on the down stroke.
Hummingbirds all drink nectar for energy. They prefer red flowers with long tube shapes like trumpet vine. Pretty much any long flower, especially red ones are dependant on hummingbirds for pollination (most insects can’t see the color red) depositing the stuff on the birds’ heads and throats. With their long bills and longer tongues with fringes on the tip, they soak up nectar via capillary action and squeeze into their mouths. Hummingbirds also hunt small insects like aphids and tiny spiders for protein, and feed them to the chicks for a rapid growth boost.
Christopher Columbus was the first European to see hummingbirds, noting them in his ship’s log when he arrived at the island of Hispaniola; he thought they were bees. In fact, the name “hummingbird” comes from both the low buzz they make in flight and from the old name for bumble bees (humble bees); interesting aside: another old name for a bumble bee is “dumbledore”. Of course, the people who already were living in America knew about hummingbirds. The Aztecs believed them to be the ghosts of warriors who had died in battle, combining the bird's brilliant beauty and utter fearlessness. The Hopi people thought hummingbirds could predict rain. In the arid Southwest, hummingbirds build nests just before the summer monsoon rains to ensure a good supply of nectar-bearing blossoms and associated small insects.
Hummingbirds nests are tiny —the nest of a Rubythroated fits over the end of your thumb like a cap. The female builds nests of silk stolen from spider webs, lines the inside with soft plant down like dandelion fluff, and attaches lichens to the outside for camouflage. Silk stretches, allowing the nest to expand as the chicks grow. Two pinto bean-sized eggs, hatch in 2 weeks and the babies are up and out in about 3. Hummingbirds usually raise two broods a season, fixing and reusing the old nest with each new clutch.
Due to their tiny size and warm bloodedness, hummers have ferocious metabolisms, burning their way through life. Hearts, largest in size in proportion to body weight of any animal, run at 500 beats per minute at rest- double that in flight. They hover with wings going at 55 beats per second, 75 in flight. The human eye just can't follow that speed so all you get is a blur. Naturally, with such a jacked-up metabolism, you expect them to have a very short life span, but hummers have several tricks up their feathered sleeves. They go into torpor or temporarily hibernate every night and in cold weather. Body temperature drops 20 or more degrees and metabolic rate slows accordingly, saving energy. The oldest Rubythroated is documented at 9 years. Other species, particularly those in temperate regions may live even longer.
Hummingbirds in temperate areas are migratory. Rufus hummingbirds go from Alaska to California and back every year. Rubythroateds migrate 500 miles across Gulf of Mexico in one hop. They were once thought to ride on the backs of migrating geese since nobody could believe such a tiny bundle of feathers could make the trip on its own.
Hummingbirds, especially males posses iridescent feathers in metallic greens, blues and reds. Feather color is due to structure, not pigment, with layers of specialized scales on each feather acting like miniature prisms. The metallic feathers on the throats of males, called gorgettes, catch the light during courtship displays to show off to any females in the area. Males fly patterns to best display their colors - Rubythroats fly in low inverted arcs like a clock pendulum, other species fly spirals or weave back and forth through the foliage, flashing on and off like living neon signs.
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