Mike Mahaffa
I believe there are a lot of residents on High Prairie that feed hummingbirds, including my wife and I. Rita and I find birds, and in particularly hummingbirds (or hummers, in the vernacular) to be of special interest for what they do in their daily activities, how they are adapted to their specific life style and their migration habits.
We have three common species of hummingbirds found in the High Prairie area. One species, the Anna’s Hummingbird will stay all year, even in January and February when the temperatures drop into the teens or even lower.
The other two species of hummers common on High Prairie are the Rufus and the Calliope. Occasionally Black-chinned hummers can be found on HP.
Some interesting facts:
• Hummers are the smallest species of birds and are only found in North and South America. Imagine if you were a visitor to High Prairie from Europe and watched a hummer do its feats. Hummers can fly forward, backward and straight up and down. Their heart will beat up to 1,200 beats a minute (they used a very small stethoscope!) to supply their muscles with energy to do their remarkable feats.
• The weight of hummers can vary but the ones on High Prairie weigh about a penny, for those of us who remember what a penny is. Or in eating terms, about the weight of an untoasted marshmallow.
• For those who feed hummers, the wing beats can vary from 720 to 5400 beats per minute. That is why it is very difficult to photograph the individual wing beats of hummers. This task had to wait for special flashes, film (at the time), and high speed cameras to be developed.
• One of the most fascinating things about hummers is their remarkable travels when they migrate, twice! a year. (As mentioned, some hummers do not migrate, pending reliable sources of food. Most of our resident HP hummers migrate, though Anna’s may stay year around on HP as below). The long distance migrant in Hummingbird World is our west coast bird, the Rufus hummingbird. The name comes from the redness of the hummer (rufous is a shade of red).
• Imagine you weigh a penny or a nickel and you are Rufus hummer wintering in southern Mexico. (Hummers aren’t stupid – they know where to enjoy December/January.) This Rufous decides to head north; but why stop in California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia? Let’s go all the way north to central Alaska to breed. And then in August, do the reverse migration back to Mexico. All by a bird that, remember, weighs a penny or two. That is a round trip each year of over 8,000 miles. Unfortunately, the population of Rufous Hummingbirds is in decline; Anna`s are increasing because of folks reliably feeding the Anna`s in their chosen area.
Hummers rarely use their two feet to land, but instead use their remarkable flying ability to feed, as you probably notice when you have hummer feeders out and about. Hummers eat very small insects along with sugar solutions primarily for the insects’ protein content. Their tongue, flat with ridges to capture their liquid food, is called a bifurcated tongue. The tongue looks like a fine feather and is that way to move the sugar solutions or small insects into the gullet. A well-fed hummer can drink up to three times their weight in one day.
• The typical nest is the size of a thimble (I have never seen a nest) and held together with spider webs and made of primarily lichen. Nests usually have two eggs (in a nest the size of a thimble) which are incubated for 12 to 14 days by the female.
I have found on HP that Rufus and Anna’s males are very territorial and will defend a sugar source very aggressively from morning to dark. It’s best to have two or more feeders located away and not visible between feeders.
If Anna`s hummingbirds do stay in the winter, they could use your help to survive. Feeding needs to be consistent, as their energy needs are enormous considering how small they are. Energy needs in summer can be 6,600 to 12,000 calories per day. If that were me, it would be easy to lose weight.
My next topic will be on tips I have found over the years for feeding hummers on High Prairie, both summer and winter.