they hold their bodies upright, and their
wings beat in a shallow figure-eight. Most
hummingbirds beat their wings about 53
times a second. All I can see is a blur.
Hummers have a high body temperature
and fast heart rate. They must feed about
every ten minutes. The major part of this
small bird’s diet is sugar from flowers
and tree sap. We have
witnessed as many as
six different birds eating
ng
at one time. Sometimes
es
they seem to be chasing
ng
each other and doing fancy
dives like a WWII bomber.mber.
Danny thought that they hey were
mating, but we did a little ittle research
research
and decided they were e fighting for
territory and food.
There are 328 species of
hummingbirds, and I bet they
all like salvia. Their bills are long and
tapered to fit perfectly into the tubular
salvia flowers. Other plants that are good
nectar sources are pineapple sage, cardinal
flower, butterfly bush, Bee balm, penstemon,
native trumpet creeper and cypress vine.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds migrate to
Mexico via the East Coast and Gulf States.
Hummingbirds live on the average of four
years, but there are records on some living
to be twelve. Think of the miracle living for 4
years with those tiny wings beating 52 times
per second. Amazing! They also remember
food sources from previous years, so if they
enjoyed your yard this year, they will be back
next spring.
I have lots of friends who feed
hummingbirds thru the summer months.
They put out their hummingbird feeder
when the hummers arrive in April and
keep it filled until
they leave for Mexico
in October. If you have been
artificially feeding these little
helicopters, don’t worry about them
staying. They will migrate because of
hormonal changes due to the decrease
in the length of daylight. There is nothing
you can do to make them stay. In fact, fall is
a good time to continue feeding since they
need to double their body weight for their
trip to the land of the Incas.
We also experience another migration going
south for the winter. The Snowbirds come
through in the fall. They seem to be looking
for coffee instead of sugar water. These
“snowbirds” get to Florida before Christmas
and then return to deepest darkest Yankee
land in the spring. Our job is to give them
a meal and maybe a night's rest as nature
makes them complete this migratory cycle.
ls Hummingbird sugar water for
¼ cup of sugar
1 cup of water
Boil for 3 minutes
Add red coloring if desired
humming
in
kee
leave
If you h
th
wo
mig
due
Th
sta
feed
w
SUMMER 2019 McMINN LIFE 13