THE HUMMINGBIRD

Our water supply comes courtesy of a bright red hand pump. When the hummingbirds begin to investigate the red pump we know it is time to put out their feeder. And so come the many questions. Here is what l have found.

The oldest recorded Hummingbird was a Broad-tailed bird known to live as long as 12 years.  On average their life span covers 3-5 years. Although they can be seen feeding at any time of day they prefer dawn and dusk. In general they settle in for the night one half hour before dark. When more than one is attracted to your feeder you will often see, to mix metaphors, aerial ‘dog fights’ as they compete for supremacy, to dominate, at ‘their’ feeder.

Hummingbirds feed on nectar from flowers and eat small insects. They consume about half their weight in pure sugar and two to three times their weight in total food due to their extremely high rate of metabolism, daily.

Their compact bodies are strongly muscled and their wings are like blades which, unlike other birds, connect to the body at the shoulder joint. The wing design permits hummingbirds to fly forward, vertically, horizontally, sideways and backwards or to hover in front of their food source to feed. The wing beat is the same no matter what direction they fly or when they hover. The beat rate varies depending upon the size of the individual bird; the larger the bird to lower the rate. Therefore the smaller birds have exceptionally high rates of speed. For example, the Ruby-throated hummingbird has a wing beat of about 70 per second in the smaller male and 50 per second in the larger female. The giant hummingbird rate is 10 times per second. Their hearts pump more oxygen-enriched blood per minute than those of mammals due to the energy demands of flight. Also, smaller animals lose body heat more rapidly and burn the oxygen in their blood faster than larger animals.

Hummingbird feathers are sparse, strongly metallic and rather scale-like in appearance. The males are most colourful and are rivaled only by the birds-of-paradise and certain pheasants. Their bill is long and slender, adapted for sucking nectar and in the sword-billed hummingbird it is unusually long, more than half of the bird’s length.

Territorial male hummingbirds chase off other hummingbirds, dive at larger birds such as crows or hawks and even mammals such as humans. Males will display in flight to passing females with swoops, dashes, sudden starts and stops often hovering to display colour. Their song has been described as ‘scratchy, squeaky’. Their wings produce a humming sound sometimes described as ‘popping’ and in many species the tail feathers produce the sounds.

The nest, which can expand as the babies grow, is a tiny cup of plant fibres, spider webs, lichens and moss attached to a branch, forked twig, a large leaf, or rock ledge. One summer we had a nest located over our deck on a birch tree branch. The two elliptical eggs – there are rarely only one – are the smallest laid by any bird although in fact proportionally they are about 10% of the female’s body weight. The eggs, about the size of a navy bean, incubate from 15 – 20 days before the one inch blind, black, naked, young, about the size of a plump raisin, are hatched. They are fed by regurgitation and take flight in about 18-28 days after hatching. The time between laying eggs and flight is affected by food supply.

Some Facts

1. The smallest migrating bird, the hummingbird typically travels solo for up to 500 miles at a time. Some will travel over 2000 miles, twice a year, during migration.
2. Their name comes from the humming noise of their wings.
3. They are the only bird to fly backwards.
4. Hummers have no sense of smell but good colour vision. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds prefer orange or red flowers. Plant red or orange flowers and use feeders that are red.
5. The average weight of a hummingbird is less than a nickel or .62 grams.
6. Their legs are only used to perch and moving sideways while perched. They can’t walk or hop.
7. They drink in the nectar by moving their forked tongue which is lined with hair-like extensions called lamellae in and out about 13 times per second. When inside the flower the tongue separates and the lamellae extend outward.
8. Eggs compare in size to a jelly or coffee bean.
9. A flock of hummingbirds can be called a bouquet, a glittering, a hover, or a tune.

• There are over 330 species of hummingbirds in North and South America. They are the second largest bird family in the world, second only to the flycatchers.
• Biblically, Hummingbirds represent faith and hope.
• Their brains, the size of a BB, store much information including spatial memory, migration, and have displayed complex emotional memory.
• Hummingbirds insert tiny insects and spiders directly into the mouths of their babies as well as nectar and pollen by holding it in their throats and ‘squirting’.
• Larger species of Hummingbirds build nests larger than smaller species. They are not cavity nesters, such as wrens, sparrows or chickadees and thus shun bird houses.
• To revive a Hummingbird that has knocked itself out by flying into a window – it happens as I found out – place the bird in a dark cardboard box and use an eyedropper to place a few drops of sugar water on the tip of its beak to help rehydrate and energize. I placed the hummer in an unused bird cage with a dish of sugar water. After it recovered and ate I removed the bottom of the cage, tipped it over and the bird flew away.

                              How to Safely Attract Hummingbirds.

1. A clean feeder of fresh sugar water will attract Hummingbirds. Clean the feeder weekly with 9 parts warm water and one part bleach to prevent mold or salmonella. Use table sugar rather than honey as honey, when diluted with water, will host bacteria and fungus. The normal mixture is ¼ cup of sugar per cup of water.
2. Native plants such as honeysuckle and other bright tubular species which hold more nectar will attract more Hummingbirds.
3. Their heart can beat as fast as 1,260 times per minute or as slow as 50-180 on a cold night when they experience torpor, a hibernation-like state that allows them to conserve energy and lower their basal metabolic rate, heart rate and respiration rate. Usually they hang upside down on a branch.
4. In fact, their average heart rate is 250 beats per minute which increases to 1,220 during flight. Their heart is 2.5% of their weight. The human resting heart beat is about 72 beats per minute. Their flight speed averages 25-30 miles per hour and they can dive up to 50 mph.

Symbolically speaking these tiny birds stand for intelligence, beauty, devotion, love and good luck. Seeing one before an event is considered to be a good sign. They are fierce fighters when defending their territory. Hyper vigilant observers, Hummingbirds gather information from their environment concerning available food sources and will notice when their feeder is filled.

Predators include: other birds such as owls, grackles, herons and gulls as well as cats, wasps, the praying mantis and dragon-fly look alikes. Humans have the greatest negative impact.