I am not the typical bird watcher. I am a bird lover however, from the Bald Eagle down to the "Bee Hummingbird". I've never seen a Bee Hummingbird, but I read that they are the smallest of all birds, measuring about 2 inches in length and weighing 0.06 ounce! When speaking of Humming Birds, you are talking of an enormous list of types. Wikipedia has a complete listing of them and state there are 325 to 340 different ones.
If I understand correctly, all these little fellows are located here in North and South America, with the really largest concentration and variety in some central and south American countries. We here in the Eastern United States are hosts to only one, so they tell me, with a possible straying one or two others on occasion. It is known as the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. They are feathered with a very deep green color and the males having a bright red throat like he has on a bandana. His wife sports the same dark green feathers but is without the bandana. Both are grayish white underneath. These are considered a medium size and may measure from 3 to 4.5 inches long and weighs around 0.40 ounce.
I said in the beginning that I was not a typical bird watcher...you know, the guy with a sun helmet, shorts and binoculars, wandering through the woodlands. But I do love to back-yard watch. My wife and I have always been notorious for our feeding of birds and any other wildlife that comes around. We have an abundance of squirrels and an occasional rabbit or opossum. We have several Ringneck Silver Doves and a few Mourning doves who feed from our feeders or on the ground around them. But we have flocks of sparrows and a number of House Finches. Then during their migration travels, Goldfinches and several birds who like a snack as they travel. But our most entertaining during the summer months are our Humming Birds.
You can almost always attract the hummingbird by putting out feeders for them. I'm not sure if that is true if you live in a busy bustling city area. We live in an average residential area near the edge of a small town and we get so many we can't afford the sugar for them. We have two feeders hanging on one post with a crossbar at the top. The little rascals are so hyper that you can hardly get a count of them. They swarm around those feeders and chase one another at high speeds, yet I have been able to accurately count as many as twelve at one time, either drinking or hovering until another moves. I've heard it said that you can triple the number you are able to count at one time and get a reasonable estimate as to the total which feed at your stations. If that is factual, then we must be attracting around 3 dozen. I read of a man south of us who has his entire yard filled with feeders and has hundreds feeding there. It is the dynamics of these little boogers that is so astounding. I want to list here a couple of paragraphs from Wikipedia that will amaze you.
With the exception of insects, hummingbirds while in flight have the highest metabolism of all animals, a necessity in order to support the rapid beating of their wings. Their heart rate can reach as high as 1,260 beats per minute, a rate once measured in a Blue-throated Hummingbird . They also typically consume more than their own weight in nectar each day, and to do so they must visit hundreds of flowers daily. At any given moment, they are only hours away from starving.
Hummingbirds are capable of slowing down their metabolism at night, or any other time food is not readily available. They enter a hibernation-like state known as torpor. During torpor, the heart rate and rate of breathing are both slowed dramatically (the heart rate to roughly 50-180 beats per minute), reducing the need for food. Most organisms with very rapid metabolisms have short life-spans; hummingbirds, however have been known to survive in captivity for as long as 17 years.
The average size hummingbird, as ours, wings flap at a rate of about 25 strokes per second(!), Of course that varies depending upon what he is doing. He can fly at what appears to be the speed of a bullet, he can stop, hover, fly straight up or straight down...or backwards. No other varmint outside the insect group can do that. At one time we had our front porch enclosed with two inch lattice work and those expert fliers would come, chasing one another through those lattice holes and by our heads and out the lattice at a terrific speed. Never a mistake and hit anything. They sound like a soft muffled ultra high speed helicopter or Harley Davidson as they pass your ear.
If you live in an area where you think they might frequent, put up a feeder or so...about the time flowers start blooming in the spring. Those who know what they are talking about recommend that you mix your own sugar-water rather than buying the ready-mixed solution since they have additives and dye that possibly could be harmful to them over a long period. Also, always use only white granulated sugar. They say, and we do, mix 1 cup sugar to 4 cups water. Or that ratio for any amount you desire to make. Also, it is recommended that you change the water, if it has not been consumed, at least once per week. Bacteria sometimes forms in sugar water after a period of time which can be harmful to the birds. Some recommend that you bring the sugar water to a boil and then cool in order to retard any bacterial growth. We don't have any of that to worry about because our feeders are emptied daily by the little gluttons.
The feeders should be washed with regular dish detergent between fillings but be sure to rinse well. Many insects also love sugar water so you may expect visitors. Not much you can do about flying insects since anything you might do to exterminate them might also harm the birds. You can eliminate the crawling ones however by putting some blobs of petroleum jelly all around the post near the bottom or if hanging from something, tie a cloth heavily coated with petroleum jelly. Small insects, such as ants find it difficult to traverse a blob of petroleum jelly. Other such sticky substances could be used so long as they would not harm the birds in any way.
Early in the spring, it appears that these birds chase each other from the feeders and I suppose that is what they are doing. Sometimes one will appear to be the larger and also the bully, but somehow they all get to feed and in the early autumn, they seem to settle down and all eat in relative peace. They have to gorge themselves until they store much fat...sometimes they double their weight. This is for their migratory trip of up to 500 miles over water to be made in one flight. It is highly important that people do put out feeders for these tiny birds. Flowers and nectar from whatever, becomes very scarce in the autumn. These bird's diet includes insects such as spiders, etc., for their protein and other needed nutrients, but due to their extremely high metabolism rate, they require an enormous amount of energy food. They sometimes take in more than their body weight in one day.
Here is a link to a 8.50 minute video that will be worth your watching. Much of it, if not all, is of the Ruby Throat that we have here. The songbirds you may hear are not the Humming Birds. They chatter, which you will hear some of, and also a little of the Harley Davidson, which I mentioned.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9uxYy_Na3w Enjoy.
