March 2, 2010

• Multiple Hummers

  Lisa, Joel and the boys moved into their new house over the weekend and our family gathered to celebrate.  The house is in Dove Canyon, but it might as well be called Hummingbird Canyon.  There were about 20 of the little buzzers lined up at the feeders to drink (as evidenced by this photo that Lisa sent last night).  They were really aggressive too, and didn’t seem to be scared of people at all.  They were no doubt celebrating the long overdue demise of the ridiculously gas guzzling Hummer.  (I had no idea how culpable Arnold Schwarzenegger was in the destruction of our planet.  What a hummer bummer!  Fascinating read though!)  I got pretty close to take these photos.  I’m still learning how to use my new little camera, but I’m pleased with the results thus far:

  

  

  

  
  There are actually four hummingbirds in this photo!

  

  Did you know that:

  • Hummingbirds are part of the Trochilidae family found only in the Americas. They are unknown in the Eastern Hemisphere. With 343 species, hummingbirds make up the Western Hemisphere’s second largest family of birds.
  • The most astonishing quality of hummingbirds is their ability to broadcast color. Hummingbirds radiate like hot coals in the sun. The color that reaches your eye is created by pigment, which absorbs some colors and rejects others. Like soap bubbles, hummingbird’s color comes from iridescence, not pigment. It winks on and off, depending on the light source and the angle of the viewer. This allows hummingbirds to flash colors or hide them which is useful for males who want to impress females or threaten other males.
  • Hummingbirds are built for power and dazzle, hummingbirds are little more than flight muscles covered with feathers. 30% of a hummingbird’s weight consists of flight muscles.
  • Hummingbirds require lots of energy. They have the fastest wing beats of any bird and their hearts beat up to 1,260 beats per minute.
  • A Hummingbird’s flight speed can average 25-30 mph, and can dive up to 60 mph.
  • In their non stop quest for fuel, Hummingbirds may visit 1,000 flower per day. For protein, hummingbirds eat spiders and strain gnats from mid-air. They will pull insects out of spiderwebs including the spider itself. Sapsucker holes are a double treat, netting both insects and sap!
  • The hummingbird’s tiny brain, 4.2% of its body weight, is proportionately the largest in the bird kingdom.
  • Many species that migrate to the U.S. travel impressive distances. Many ruby-throats make a 2,000 mile journey between Canada and Panama. The trip includes a non-stop, 500 mile flight over the Gulf of Mexico.
  • Hummingbirds are very territorial and will aggressively protect nectar sources especially when migrating. It is important to have several feeders, out of sight of each other, to prevent one hummingbird from dominating your feeders.
  • Hummingbirds have a unique way of keeping warm or conserving their energy – at night, or any time they cannot get enough food to fuel themselves – they go into torpor – a state in which their metabolic rate is only one-fifteenth that of normal sleep.
  • A hummingbird can rotate each of its wings in a circle, allowing them to be the only bird which can fly forwards, backwards, up, down, sideways or sit in sheer space. To hover, hummingbirds move their wings forward and backward in a repeated figure eight, much like the arms of a swimmer treading water. Hummingbirds can move instantaneously in any direction, start from its perch at full speed, and doesn’t necessarily slow up to land. Hummingbirds can even fly short distances upside down, a trick rollover they employ when being attacked by another bird.
  • Hummingbirds have weak feet and are more at ease using their wings even to shift in the nest or on a perch.
  • Hummingbirds do not mate for life – the female raises the young on her own. The male hummingbird is not involved with raising the young. The female does all the work of raising her young alone! Females will lay a clutch of only two white eggs and will produce only one brood per season. The hatchlings will remain in the nest for three weeks.
  • Hummingbirds can live a decade or more in the wild.

  I’m still out of town and very busy this week, but here are the rest of the weekend photos:

  
  Sunset from my office

  
  The Spectrum

  
  A gorgeous morning in Irvine

  
  Great Grandma & Andy, note the hummingbird

  
  Favorite Cousins

  
  Tommy got a merit badge this weekend!

  
  Sandy Andy

  
  Best of the rest…
  

  • 8:54 am
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