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July 17: Hummingbirds
Jul. 17th, 2010 08:10 pmI don't know how any amount of nectar could meet the incredible energy needs of a hummingbird. Those tiny bodies never seem to stop. They don't just fly, they zip, they zoom, they hover, they don't rest. One will zoom up to the feeder, drink for a second and a half, then another zooms into the scene and the first zips away. Somehow they seem hyperaware of their surroundings, too. It's odd, because few things are more alert to movement than a small bird like a chickadee, but I feel like the hummingbirds actually see more. They look in the window and see me inside my apartment, hover and think for a second, then zoom away.
(About those energy needs, it seem they are almost too much. "Hummingbirds are continuously hours away from starving to death, and are able to store just enough energy to survive overnight." And yet some of them live for three, five, or even ten years!)
Tonight I took a short rest and sat on the couch watching the feeder. Sometimes I'll get to ten o'clock at night and realize that I haven't been still all day. Except for maybe a few moments when I fell asleep from sheer exhaustion, I don't stop. Even if my body is not moving much, my mind and my hands are going. It's a hyper state. I feel like a hummingbird.
I wonder where, and how much, they sleep. Maybe there are little clutches of them in hidden places at night, perched and still, but even then they're dreaming. And one starts moving, unconsciously looking for a trumpetvine blossom, starts to beat its wings, lifts off the twig for a few seconds, and hovers in its sleep before returning to rest on the twig with its long beak tucked against its tiny breast.
Random interesting hummingbird fact: the ruby-throated hummingbird (and some other species) uses spider silk as part of the structure of her nest. She takes dandelion or thistle down (I know this is starting to sound like a Victorian fairy story, but I am not kidding) and binds it together with strands of silk so the nest, about the size of a thimble, is strong but flexible and it can stretch as the babies grow. Wow. How do they collect the silk? Have they been observed doing it? I want to be the naturalist who records that behavior!
(About those energy needs, it seem they are almost too much. "Hummingbirds are continuously hours away from starving to death, and are able to store just enough energy to survive overnight." And yet some of them live for three, five, or even ten years!)
Tonight I took a short rest and sat on the couch watching the feeder. Sometimes I'll get to ten o'clock at night and realize that I haven't been still all day. Except for maybe a few moments when I fell asleep from sheer exhaustion, I don't stop. Even if my body is not moving much, my mind and my hands are going. It's a hyper state. I feel like a hummingbird.
I wonder where, and how much, they sleep. Maybe there are little clutches of them in hidden places at night, perched and still, but even then they're dreaming. And one starts moving, unconsciously looking for a trumpetvine blossom, starts to beat its wings, lifts off the twig for a few seconds, and hovers in its sleep before returning to rest on the twig with its long beak tucked against its tiny breast.
Random interesting hummingbird fact: the ruby-throated hummingbird (and some other species) uses spider silk as part of the structure of her nest. She takes dandelion or thistle down (I know this is starting to sound like a Victorian fairy story, but I am not kidding) and binds it together with strands of silk so the nest, about the size of a thimble, is strong but flexible and it can stretch as the babies grow. Wow. How do they collect the silk? Have they been observed doing it? I want to be the naturalist who records that behavior!