Hurricane Ivan undoubtedly decimated the migrating population of Ruby Throated Hummingbirgs crossing the Gulf of Mexico this September...
But... hummingbirds are tiny but hardy birds, and so let's add these observations to our on board compendium of these little point twenty-two ounce helicoptor bird's amazing exploits.
From the book ... How Baby Tigers Learn...
*** In North Carolina a hummingbird was observed caught in a garden hose flow of water that surfboarded the bird downhill. Birdwatchers were amazed when the bird went back five times to bodysurf the stream.
*** In all birdland only two families of birds adapt their song to mimic the sounds that they hear in the external world. One is the family that includes parrots, finches and crows. The other is hummingbirds.
***Investigators were perplexed when hummingbirds failed miserably when attemps were made to condition them by rewards to choose a honeyed yellow feeder over a red feeder which held no food.
The hummingbirds invariably flip-floped from the honey feeder back to the empty.
Finally, "Ah ha!" said one investigator, "if we happen to be a hummingbird, and we visit a particular flower and drink, we dasn't go back to that first flower because the flower that we have already visited, we have already drank."
Rocket science.
