As soon as we returned to Arizona I put my hummingbird feeders back up- three in the back yard and one in the front yard. Hummers are entertaining creatures to watch and I was hoping it wouldn't take long for them to find their way back... and I wasn't disappointed! We have a string of patio lights across our patio and several of them like to sit there and rest.
This guy is an Anna's hummingbird (the most common ones in Arizona) and is quite comfortable around people although very territorial with other hummers.
The hummers in my back yard "sing" and "talk" in high-pitched squeaks and chirps. Sometimes they perch and seem to "sing"- I'm sure the lyrics are praises to God. Other times they seem to "yell" as they aggressively defend their feeder. If I'm close enough, I can see their beaks vibrate while they're vocalizing... amazing!
♫♬♩CHEE CHEE CHEE ♬♪♫
Hummers eat insects for protein and flower nectar for energy. The syrup they like to slurp out of the feeders is dessert! Hummingbirds have the highest metabolism of any animal and eat one to two times their body weight EVERY DAY.
Their wings are a blur as they beat about 50 times A SECOND when they hover to eat!
(For comparison, the feeder is 4.5 inches long and the red cap is 1.5 inches in diameter.)
This morning I watched a rather ordinary thing... a bath... done in a most extraordinary way. I've seen ducks, geese and other water fowl duck under the water in a pond or lake- or my back yard pool- and assumed that in addition to "fishing" they were cleaning themselves. I've watched doves and grackles and sparrows flit around in a fountain or "shower" in the sprinklers. This morning a hummingbird flew through the mist of the sprinklers and perched on the line of lights on the patio.
You can tell he's damp by the way his feathers stick out. He perched facing out into the yard and spent a minute or so looking around.
Then he hopped around and faced in towards the patio with his back to the yard... as if he wanted some privacy. Using his beak, he picked and fluffed. Occasionally a piece of something- a feather, debris, ???- would fall from his body and float down to the ground.
No part of his body was neglected. He even stretched out his wings to clean them.
Finally, he spread out his tail feathers and gave them a shake.
Once cleaned and fluffed, he hopped back around to resume his vigil of the yard as he finished drying. When another hummer approached his feeder, he "yelled" vehemently at him but didn't leave his perch. I wonder if they don't fly well when they're wet/damp...
The birds nest beside the streams and sing among the branches of the trees. Psalm 104:12
So if he wanted privacy, why were you taking pictures of him?!?! haha. I want to get some hummer feeders for our yard, too - once it would be somewhere a hummer would want to come!
ReplyDeleteOh, and I would eat two times my body weight every day if I beat my wings 50 times a second, too.
ReplyDeleteLOL! You're so funny! Can you imagine trying to eat even just your body weight in food every single day? Pretty much ALL they do is eat ALL day long. And at night they almost hibernate to lower their metabolism- otherwise they'd starve to death while they sleep.
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