They're very interesting. One particularly interesting thing about them is they eat nearly all the time--at least the ones here on the farm do.

Now, with all that beating of wings and all that eating and all that heart pumping (ovet 1000 beats a minute...maybe even 1450 or so), how in Sam's hill do they make it down South in the winter? My Aunt Faye used to say they hitched a ride on the backs on geese, but I dunno...

I heard something about this on an NPR nature show a while back, but have forgotten, of course. I think they fatten up before the flight. I'll check to see if Cornell has anything on it.


Edit: Here's some cool info from Cornell's Lab of O: http://birds.cornell.edu/BOW/RUTHUM/

The video Watching Hummingbirds Watch 1998 explains that hummingbirds have evolved feathers unique to their species, namely, their wing tips reverse and so provide stationary lift, thus saving energy.

Also...in more or less direct flights (such as in migrations) hummingbirds are the fastest birds in the world in relation to their body length( over 300 body lengths per second, I think.) This is too fast for the human eye to frame and so they often appear to us as bright green streaks against a big blue sky.

When migrating, hummingbirds stop enroute to rest and feed, figgering, I guess, that if the lowly Monarch butterflies can flutter a thousand miles or so, the fastest bird in the world can too.

Being so small you'd think they'd be timid but in fact the ones around my parents place were scrappy and quarrelsome with each other and completely unafraid of us or the dogs. One even drank out of the feeder in my hand as I was trying to hang it up.
Years ago my mom saw the neighbour's cat acting odd and then saw a stick coming out of its mouth. She went to help thinking that it had a twig caught in its teeth or throat or something. When she pried its mouth open a hummingbird flew out. What she had seen was the beak.

I'm with you Zed. The hummingbirds around my parents summer cottage aren't timid little souls at all. It's funny because they'll immediately pop up out of nowhere when we show up and fill the feeder.

If we went regularly, I'd say they're following our pattern, but we don't.

It's funny about them being attracted to the red feeder since there are very few red flowers up north. Well, there are none really, only one variety of dark orange flower.

We have three feeders off the back porch, and my dad keeps them filled throughout the day, at least three fillings per day during hummingbird season. One feeder is clear, one is nearly sapphire, and the third is strawberry. It's the strawberry feeder that causes all the problems and fights. One large hummingbird that my dad refers to as 'Boss Hog' dominates the strawberry, sits atop its supporting rod, and fights off any challengers. He sits there all day long and only has to protect his berry when the other two feeders are ready for refilling.

Oh, and, AnnaS, thanks very much for the link. I just printed it out.

The whole site is worth a browse, when you have time.

at least three fillings per day

just how many hummingbirds are we talking here?

Maybe they were tiny feeders.

tiny feeders



they certainly are...

They're pretty much normal-sized feeders--the kinds you would see in any shop seeling feeders. I guess they hold about a pint and a half--or maybe a little less. Tonight just before 7:00 my dad looked at the feeders and said, "I need to fill them again." I asked him why so since night was falling, and he said, "Oh, they'll drink it all up." I counted nine hummingbirds working on one feeder today--just batting each other around trying to nab quick drinks.

A week ago I decided to strap a surveillance camera to a tree close to a bird feeder to see if birds feed at night. The camera is equipped with a flash and the motion detector snaps the shot. I activated the camera at the break of dark.

The first night the camera recorded eighteen hits, so, inspired by this thread, the next night I positioned the camera to record the events around the hummingbird feeder to finish out the roll. Success! By dawn all the pictures were taken.

Yesterday the photos were returned from the developer and were a bit of a disappointment but interesting. The bird feeder pictures were of two cardinals (a bright red male and a beautiful white and pink female who contrasted well with the backdrop of black.) and three pictures of the bird feeder but no bird.

The hummingbird feeder night did worse. The camera recorded eight pictures of the hummingbird feeder but no bird.

Hmmm, maybe the hummingbird feeder swings in the breeze. Maybe the hummingbirds are too fast for my camera.

I'll try again this week.

How does the surveillance camera work? Does it shoot single shots every few minutes--or what?

amememba pointed out he used: ...camera is equipped with a flash and the motion detector snaps the shot. I activated the camera at the break of dark.

other camera's just take a 'snapshot' every 10 to 15 seconds, others still work on other methods, --some are sound rather motion activated.

motion detectors have gotten really cheap --they are commonly used on exterior lights (i used to have them on my front door) and in ladies rooms and store rooms, the lights come on when the door is opened, and go off X miniutes after they stop detecting motion.

but they are hard to calibrate. my exterior door lights detected motion in the street as well as on the sidewalk.. so passing cars could activate the lights. --fortunately, my house was on a dead end street. i am seriously thinking of getting a motion activation switch for my entry hall in the apartment.. i like coming into a lit house/room, i hate leaving a light burning all day!

Right, of troy. I had the motion detector set with a fifteen second delay between pictures. This, though, might be too long for birds. (the idea was to save film for visits by other birds). This week I'll try to get a digital camera rigged up. If this works I'll post my results on this thread.

I haven't seen all the pics yet, but check this out!

Birth of a hummingbird:
http://community-2.webtv.net/@HH!C3!A2!4CB455C9F38F/hotmail.com/verle33/HummingBirdNest/

Oh, many thanks, et', for this link. Those photographs were fascinating and I shall print them out on high quality paper and will try to figure out some kind of writer's response to them for my kids at school to go through. Fabulous. What a treasure trove! And why did one little bird fall out of the nest? Many questions now. Again, many thanks for giving this to us.

It sounds like the second bird was pushed out be the first WW.

It sounded like it, but the writer didn't actually say that this was a directly witnessed account. "Cain" implied as much, but I wonder whether the writer actually witnessed the event or assumed it. It's gravumptiously anxiousitoxicating to try to figure these things out without a witness!

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.