By Staff
While living in town seeing a hummingbird at our nectar feeder was a noteworthy event but out here in the country they're thicker than hornets. This is doubly so now that the broods of the year are on the wing. A constant stream of them come and go from the feeder from dawn to dark. And feisty little buggers they are, squabbling and fighting for feeder rights. Usually these power plays are short term and eventually everyone gets their share. Lately, though, a stocky male the wife named Atilla The Hum has laid claim to the feeder and, by gosh and by gory, it's his and his alone. Atilla's mission is to stand guard at the feeder and drive off every one of his kind that comes into view. The ensuing aerial dog fights, twisting, turning, diving and climbing at blinding speed put the Top Gun pilots to shame. Too bad the others aren't smart enough to join forces and teach him some manners.
Atilla's never ending battles burn up a tremendous amount of energy and all but preclude him from eating himself. Maybe that's their strategy, to keep him so busy he starves to death. They may be onto something for hummingbirds have the highest metabolism of all birds and must consume about 10 calories every day to survive. The average hummingbird weighs a bit over a tenth of an ounce. Crunch the numbers and that's like a 180 lb. person requiring over 200,000 calories a day. While a portion of these calories come from nectar, hummingbirds also need protein and consume a variety of small insects.
The hummingbird's incredible acrobatic flying is unrivaled by any other creature. Their normal cruising wing beat is around 80 times a second, which moves them along at about 25 miles per hour. During courtship displays, aerial dog fights and other high speed maneuvers they can reach 40 miles per hour with wings beating 200 times a second. That's some serious flapping. During their classic hovering in place the wings don't flap up and down but rather forward and backward in a figure eight motion. They can also fly backwards and even upside down. It takes a lot of heart to pump enough blood to drive such active muscles. A hummingbird's heart is about two-percent its body weight, comparatively the largest heart in the animal kingdom. Going back to our 180 pound person, that equates to a four-pound heart. While at rest the hummingbird's heart beats 250 times per minute but when he kicks in the afterburner the heart fires up to over 1200 beats a minute. To give that old ticker a rest, at night hummingbirds go into sort of a hibernation state called torpor where the heart and breathing slows and metabolism goes down.
There are over 330 species of hummingbirds, all hailing from the Western Hemisphere. There are no hummingbirds on the other side of the Big Pond. Only one calls Eastern North America home, the ruby-throated hummingbird. In late spring the female builds a nest about the size of a large English walnut on a wispy branch from 12 to 30-feet above ground. It's made of fine grasses and similar materials, plushly lined with plant down and the exterior camouflaged with lichens. The whole works is firmly bound together with spider web. She typically lays only one or two eggs. The male takes no part in domestic duties.
In winter they head for more sociable climates. A persistent myth is that migrating hummingbirds hitch a ride on the backs of geese. Not so because they can't stand the temperatures of high altitude flight. Some winter in southern Florida but most go to Mexico, Central and South America. Those hailing from the northern U.S. and Canada will travel some 2500 miles. Some take land routes but many cross the Gulf of Mexico, a 500 mile, non stop, 20 hour journey. They do this at night flying just over the wave tops. During stormy weather hummingbirds have been known to actually fly in the curl of a wave, using the wave as a windbreak. That takes guts or desperation. I'm not sure which. Carpe diem.