The Bird That Kisses Flowers — Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY

The Bird That Kisses Flowers

BRAZILIANS call it beija-flor—the bird that kisses flowers. That name well fits the role of hummingbirds among blossoms. Other observers, noting the birds’ vivid plumage, call these tiny creatures “living jewels” or “lovely fragments of the rainbow” and give various species exquisite names, such as ruby-topaz, glittering-bellied emerald, or bronze-tailed comet.

The spectacular coloring is mostly visible on the special feathers around the throat area and crown of male hummers. Their feathers have layers of cells filled with air, and these cells refract light waves into a rainbow of color somewhat like millions of tiny soap bubbles can.

A beautiful description of a cinnamon-colored rufous hummingbird, common to western North America, is found in the book Creature Comforts, by Joan Ward-Harris: “His jewel lies on his throat—the gorget . . . It extends below his cheeks and under his chin to his throat and chest, like a baby’s bib. The effect of the flared gorget is breathtaking—the bird looks twice its usual size and seems literally on fire.” As the rufous streaks away, his gorget may flash violet, emerald, or even all the colors of the spectrum. But let him turn from the light, and the gorget suddenly becomes a deep, velvety black.

Aerobatic Wonder

Hummingbirds are known for aerobatics par excellence. For a moment, one will hover at a flower, drinking its nectar, with its humming wings a misty blur. Then, with a start, this mighty mite darts forward, backward, sideways, or even upside down with 50 to 70—some say 80—wingbeats per second! Reportedly, it can reach speeds of 30 to 60 miles per hour [50 to 100 km/h] and then come to an abrupt stop. What makes the hummingbird capable of such amazing feats?

The secret lies in the hummer’s marvelously designed body parts. Well-developed muscles, fastened to a prominent breastbone, make up 25 to 30 percent of its body weight. Its wings, rigid from shoulder to wingtip, allow for power in both upward and downward beats, rather than just in the downstroke, which is true of other birds. Thus, both strokes provide lift and propulsion, while the shoulder joint allows 180-degree rotation. Little wonder that the bird’s aerobatics can enthrall you!

Would the hummers pass an endurance test? Most assuredly. For example, each year some rufous hummingbirds migrate more than two thousand miles [3,000 km] from their winter home in Mexico to as far north as Alaska. The perils of high mountain passes, open water, and bad weather do not faze them.

Voracious Eater

The love affair that hummingbirds have with the flowers they visit serves a useful purpose—cross-pollination. However, the real attraction for them is nectar. To fuel its tremendous energy, the hummer needs to eat about half (some say twice) its weight in carbohydrate-rich nectar each day. Can you imagine a proportionate requirement of food for a human?

Unlike most birds, hummingbirds rarely walk. They feed on the wing. With bills varying in length and shape according to species, they choose blossoms that particularly suit them. They supplement their nectar diet by catching fruit flies and plucking aphids off vegetation. How does the bird get nectar from the flowers it kisses?

The hummer’s feeding tool is its tongue. Joan Ward-Harris writes: “A hummingbird’s tongue is long, narrow, forked and slightly hairy at the tip; two curled furrows divide it, creating tiny troughs along which nectar is carried by capillary action until it is swallowed.”

If you attract hummingbirds to a feeder near your window, you will never tire of the entertainment these fascinating bundles of energy will give you. However, only feed them if you are prepared to care for them through an entire season, since they will depend on your food source as they raise their family in a nearby nest.

Courtship Rites

Some hummingbird species in Central and South America attract their ladyloves by means of their singing. The wine-throated hummingbird, of Guatemala, is most musical in its cadences. And the white-eared hummingbird’s song sounds like “the chiming of a small, sweet-toned silver bell.” Most, though, are not known as songsters. They simply repeat a few monotonous, metallic notes over and over again or at other times hum with beaks closed and gorget swelled out.

Some hummers put on a dazzling display of aerobatics in their courtship ritual. This is true of the rufous, a fiery streak that plummets from a great height to a point just above the watching female and then—just in time—swoops upward to describe the letter J. To and fro he maneuvers on the base of the J until returning to the high point again or flying off with his new mate. His wingbeats during this showy display may reach two hundred per second!

Dainty Homes

The hummingbird’s nest is “one of the daintiest structures in the world,” claims one observer. Joan Ward-Harris showed an Awake! reporter a nest she had found. It was one and three quarters inches [4.5 cm] across and about three eighths of an inch [1 cm] deep, constructed in such a way that as the bumblebee-size babies grew, their cozy home would expand to accommodate them. To have a nest in the palm of your hand is a thrill—a little doll’s cup of soft plant materials. Nests are also made of fine feathers woven together with cobwebs. In it are laid two or three pure-white eggs, “like evenly matched pearls.”

In feeding her babies, the mother inserts her beak far into their tiny throats, regurgitating the needed nourishment. Usually after just three weeks, the fledglings instinctively take off on their own, feeding and growing until their internal clock sends them on their long migration toward milder winter weather.

Fearless

A surprising characteristic of the hummingbird is its fearless nature. You can see a display of this when tempers seemingly flare over feeding stations or territory. In South America two velvet-purple coronets were observed darting courageously at an eagle that invaded their nesting area, showing their willingness to take on a Goliath when necessary. But hummingbirds sometimes lose their lives to other enemies, such as snakes, frogs, spiderwebs, prickly flowers, and human collectors.

Yet, many humans befriend them and eagerly await the hummingbirds’ return each season to resume their purposeful life-style. To study these sparkling gems of creation more closely will surely enhance your delight in them—if they choose to kiss the flowers in your garden.

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HUMMINGBIRD FACTS

• With 320 species, hummingbirds make up the second-largest bird family in the Western Hemisphere

• They are the minikin of the bird world: The bee hummingbird of Cuba measures 2.25 inches [about 6 cm] from the tip of its tail to the tip of its bill

• The largest hummingbird is 8.5 inches [22 cm] in overall length and is found in western South America from Ecuador to Chile

• Their main habitat includes the equatorial zone across South America from sea level to more than 15,000 feet [4,500 m] and some islands of the Caribbean and the Pacific

• During summer months they are found as far north as Alaska and as far south as Tierra del Fuego

• At one time, millions were slaughtered to provide decorations for the European millinery trade, likely exterminating some species

[Pictures]

Giant (life-size)

Bee hummingbird (life-size)

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[Picture on page 15]

Rufous hummingbird

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THE HUMMINGBIRD SOCIETY/Newark Delaware USA

[Picture on page 15]

Bee hummingbird (enlarged)

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[Picture on page 15]

Antillean mango

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[Picture on page 16]

Rufous-breasted hermit

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[Picture on page 16, 17]

Anna’s (enlarged)

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Patricia Meacham/Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

[Picture on page 17]

Ruby-throated female and young