No big philosophical post today, just an "I told you so". Nice, aren't I? Anyway, in the two weeks that my hummingbirds have been back 'home' for the summer, I've repeatedly been told that I must be mistaken, but that hummingbirds never stop flying, and do not land to sit on things. I'm not sure where the information comes from, but this seems to be a commonly believed 'fact'. Since last year was my first year having hummingbirds around, I thought I must be mistaken as well.This picture demonstrates how my little hummingbird regularly sits when he visits. He sits on the staff that the birdseed feeder hangs from, he sits atop my flower pots and regularly sits on the different brackets that I hang my plant, flags or his feeder from. I have 3 hummingbirds (2 males and 1 female), so I'm not sure if it's the same male sitting all the time or not. They usually hover when they feed, but this little guy was sitting when he fed at one point today.
Incidentally, if you've never seen a hummingbird up close, at least this variety (ruby-throated hummingbird) is about the size of a woman's thumb (not counting the beak, but counting the tail). A lot of times it looks like a very large bumblebee passing by. Once the birds get used to coming to my feeder (about 6 feet away from my sliding glass door), I'll move it to the outside of my sliding glass door, and they will come feed while I stand on the other side of the glass. It's amazing how tiny their feet are when you see them up close (their toes look about as thick as the leg of a grandaddy-longlegs). They also make a little chirping sound every time they swallow. And their wings do hum and they look blurry because they move so fast. Today while sitting, the hummingbird was kind of preening his feathers and even lifted a leg to scratch an itch on his ear.
Since I'm just the plethora of information today, if you want to make hummingbird food, boil 1 cup water and add 1/4 cup sugar till it dissolves. I used to use the storebought red nectar, but I read somewhere that it is linked to birth defects in the baby birds....dont' know if that is true. After reading that, I tried to switch away from the red food, and make my own sugar water, but they wouldn't eat what I made. This year, I started directly with the homemade recipe, and they are drinking it right up.
So now you know!
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- Debbie Stewart