Around Malakoff: Plenty of hummingbirds

By Loretta Humble

I am besieged by hummingbirds. It is wonderful.

Still nursing my toe after surgery, I have been forced to stop and pay attention to things around me. This is probably good for me, as my daughter Liz has long contended I have Attention Deficit Disorder — that I can’t or won’t stay focused, but flit from thing to thing. Kind of like these hummingbirds.

Obviously, these guys are not setting me a good example, but they sure are fun to watch. I’m sitting in my recliner with my laptop in my lap and keeping a close eye on them. In past years, I’ve only been able to attract one or two, but this year I’ve hit the jackpot. They won’t be still and let me count them, but I know that sometimes there are bound to be at least two dozen of the little boogers buzzing around at one time, bumping one another. Then they will disappear. Then a crowd will reappear. I thought these were the same birds coming back, but now I have been made aware I may be seeing whole new crowds—they are migrating, after all.

They are consuming at least a quart of my homemade nectar a day from my three feeders. I need more feeders, and soon will need more sugar.

I understand I’m not the only person with lots of hummingbirds this year, and I’m told because the drought has dried all the flowers, the birds are actually hungry.

I’m pretty sure this time of year other birds can find plenty to eat by themselves, especially if they like grasshoppers, so I figure feeding them now is simply payment for entertainment. But apparently it is different with the hummers. Looks like they seriously need us. It’s really fun to help them out.

Since I’m sitting here with this computer anyhow, I decided I’d do a little research on the little fellows, so I Googled them. The first thing I found was the Hummingbird Forum, created and run by a fellow named Bob in Kentucky since 2005. A really friendly bunch of folks, located all over the country, and best I can tell, nearly all are still seeing hummers. I saw reports of current sightings from Michigan, New York, Massachusetts and Chicago. I even heard there are still a few hummers in Canada. So unless they change their route, we here in East Texas should be seeing hummingbirds for quite a while.

When the Forum folks heard I was working on a column, they told me to be sure to tell you the basics of how to treat the little guys right.

Here it is in a nut shell. Just like everybody else, they thrive on home cooking. Don’t bother buying that ready made stuff. Just get 4 cups of water really hot—boil if you wish, but you don’t have to, and then stir in one cup of sugar till it is clear and cools down. Don’t bother coloring it red, either. Takes more time, the birds don’t care, and some folks think it is bad for their little bird bellies. Don’t worry about fancy decorated feeders; just be sure the ones you buy come apart so you can clean them, and be sure to do that every two or three days.

The Forum people tell me that it is OK to keep the feeders out as long as there is a stray hummer. Used to be we were told to take them in before it gets cold, so as to not encourage the stragglers to keep hanging around, and maybe freeze, but the truth is we don’t have that much influence on the little buggers. They are going to do what they please, and if they are here, we might as well help them out and enjoy them.

Just to wind this up, here are a few info tidbits about these gorgeous little fellows:
Hummingbirds weigh from 2.8 to 6.5 grams, a range which lies from about a penny to a little more than a nickel. An average hummer consumes half its weight in nectar each day. If an average man had that metabolism, he would have to eat 285 pounds of hamburger every day to keep his weight up. Hummingbirds do not exactly suck nectar through their long bills: they have a forked tongue, lined with hair-like extensions called lamellae. When the bird pulls its tongue in, the tips come together and the lamellae roll inward, trapping the nectar within his tongue.

I didn’t know this: hummingbirds are also carnivores. They eat a lot of small flying insects. I hope they are eating mosquitoes.

They flap their little wings at a rate of 50 and 200 flaps per second, thus making that humming sound that gives them their name.

The Rufous Hummingbird has the longest migration route of any hummingbird. Some fly up to 3000 miles from their breeding range in Alaska to their wintering grounds in Mexico. Ruby-throats fly 500 miles nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico on their migration. In as little as a week before their journey, they can increase their body weight by 50 to 100 percent, storing energy as fat to burn while crossing.

Hummingbirds can live up to 12 years, though many live only 3 to 5 years.

Rockport, Texas is holding its 25th annual Hummingbird Festival this weekend. Maybe it’s too late for us to get there, but we can read about it at http://www.rockporthummingbird.com/
I’ll be posting a lot of other hummingbird links on my facebook page
www.facebook.com/aroundthetown.

links for online
http://www.hummingbirds.net/
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/humm/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/86537424012/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hummingbird-Love/494924547260883