eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Well, summer is pretty much shot... We might as well create another "Bird of the Week" post. In light of his (and her) imminent departure, this time let's dedicate it to the Ruby-throated Hummingbird.



About the Ruby-throat...

• The female Ruby-throat actually has a white throat as in the photo above.
• Hummingbirds are remarkably inquisitive birds. Time and time again, the wife and I have been "buzzed" by them, and on more than one occasion have met them face to face at a foot or less.
• Hummers flap their wings at a rate approaching 75 beats/second. That's thirteen one-thousands of a second per flap.
• They weigh 1/10th of one ounce.
• The hummingbird egg is about the size of a jellybean.

All facts aside... Looks like they're gone for the winter... Bummer...

142 years ago, Emily Dickinson wrote...

As imperceptibly as grief
The summer lapsed away, --
Too imperceptible, at last,
To seem like perfidy.

A quietness distilled,
As twilight long begun,
Or Nature, spending with herself
Sequestered afternoon.

The dusk drew earlier in,
The morning foreign shone, --
A courteous, yet harrowing grace,
As guest who would be gone.

And thus, without a wing,
Or service of a keel,
Our summer made her light escape
Into the beautiful.

See you by those melancholy feeders without the hummingbirds,

CapeCodAlan

As always, thanks to the following:

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Wikipedia
• Audubon Society
• U.S. Geological Survey
• MSN Encarta
• The National Audubon Society’s “The Sibley Guide to Birds”
• ”Birds Of North America” published by Golden
• ”Birds of New England” from Smithsonian Handbooks
• Chapman's "Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America"
• Peterson's "A Field Guide to the Birds"
• "Birdwatching" from publisher "Discovery Travel Adventures"
• Project Gutenberg