Our Hummer

Every summer we make sugar water to feed the hummingbirds. They are so much fun! If the feeder is empty they will dive and chirp to let us know they want that free meal NOW. If we sit on the front porch eating cereal they hover in the air and look us over, deciding if it is safe to breakfast with us. Bob got some incredible photos this summer. I thought you would enjoy seeing them. The birds have left now for their flight to I don't know where.

National Parks magazine, Fall 2012, has an article about "The Secret Lives of Hummingbirds." There is a Hummingbird Monitoring Network which has trained park staff and volunteers how to handle the fragile creatures. Did you know there is a standard banding protocol?  Mesa Verde, Bryce Canyon and Bandelier all conduct research with the Hummingbird Monitoring Network. At Mesa Verde some banded birds have returned five years in a row! "They volunteers set up monitoring sites that trap, band and release hummingbirds from March to October. Every two weeks a team arrives at dawn to begin its count. Some volunteers trap the birds while others identify the species, record fat levels and other indicators of overall health, note whether the bird carries an egg, and attach the tiny tracking band." To trap the birds the feeder has a net affixed to the top, and "when a tiny aerialist lands on the perch, the woman standing nearby pulls a drawcord and -poof!- the bird is trapped within a soft, meshy balloon." Mind you, handling these tiny birds is a challenge. Their legs seem to me to to be tinier than toothpicks!

The website http://www.worldofhummingbirds.com/facts.php has many facts. Here are a few I found most interesting.

Hummingbirds can flash their bright colors, as well as hide them when needed.
A hummingbird can weigh anywhere between 2 and 20 grams. A penny weighs 2.5 grams. A baby hummingbird is generally smaller than a penny. Females will lay a clutch of two eggs. Baby hummingbirds cannot fly. They remain in the nest for three weeks.
Most hummingbirds die in the first year of life. The average life span is about five years, though they can live for more than ten years! 
Hummingbirds can hear better and see farther than humans. They are the only birds that can fly both forwards and backwards. Hummingbirds can also hover in mid-air, fly sideways, and even upside-down! They can average 20-30 miles per hour, with an ability to dive at 60 miles-per-hour. They can barely walk and always prefer to fly.

So here is our hummer, resting on a metal sculpture between his many sips of nectar.
I could not wait for the summer medical stuff to end, but I am sorry to see the hummers go!