My friends and family know I am a big fan of hummingbirds. I have the art, the jewelry, even the vanity license plate to prove it. Besides being beautiful, their pugnacious and outsized personalities make them a delightful bird, in my opinion. The Aztecs considered them the reincarnated spirits of warriors and their leaders wore capes made of hummingbird feathers. Also, how can anyone not admire birds that have names like comet, coquette, topaz, magnificent and light bearer.
This made me think about my encounters with Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (pictured above) in our yard. These are the only hummingbirds that regularly occur in eastern North America. Like many people, I was used to watching birds from my window, but a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird switched that scenario on me. One spring, he flew into our yard and checked out all my seed feeders. Then, he flew up to the window and looked in at me. I had read about hummingbirds returning to yards that had nectar feeders and getting the owner’s attention so they would put it out. Although I planted for hummers, I had never had a nectar feeder, so I found that an interesting behaviour. I never expected a bird to let me know it wanted to be fed! If you want to put out nectar feeders, make sure you keep them scrupulously clean. Also, never use red dye in the liquid. It causes birth defects in baby hummingbirds.
Hummers may be aggressive with other birds, but I found them to be very tolerant of humans. I have had hummers fly up to look me in the face or feed at the flower boxes, which were by my feet on our porch. Younger birds paused over the flowers for a moment to check me out, but hunger always won and they were quick to get over their shyness. I once even stood next to a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird as she fed on hollyhocks. She ignored me, but when another hummer entered our yard, she went on the attack and chased the intruder away.
Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird
One of my most memorable moments with a Ruby-throated Hummingbird happened after it hit our window. I heard the sound of it bouncing off the window. I looked out and saw it lying in the grass. I rushed out to see if it was still alive. It was still breathing and just stunned. I leaned down for a closer look, while deciding what to do. The young hummer didn’t like that. It rose straight up from the lawn, chittering at me the whole time. It flew toward our house, stopped to make sure I was not following it, turned to chitter at me one last time, and then disappeared around the corner of our house. I came out from behind the window to help and instead was given the bird, by a bird. That is why I just love hummingbirds!
Note: All photos are from Wikipedia Commons, an online source of copyright-free photos: Ruby-throated Hummingbird by Paul Danese; female Ruby-throated Hummingbird by Dick Daniels.
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