Arizona has more types of hummingbirds than any other state, I am told. Anyway, they abound around where we live, as there is some cactus, shrub or other plant that blooms every month.
When my wife is out watering the desert (she has a huge garden), hummingbirds will often come and fly right trough the stream of water. Of course, everybody is thirsty in the desert.
Anyhow, yesterday morning it was nice and cool (under 100 F), so she sat outside in a chair admiring the scenery. All of a sudden, a hummingbird came right up to her leg, and hovered there for quite a while. She then realized that she was wearing slacks that had a floral pattern, and the bird was pointing to one of the red flowers (they really like red).
Then, it flew right up to a few inches from her face, hovering there, looking at her,and probably asking, “WTF?”
Back in the early 90s we were living in San Diego, and the zoo had a hummingbird aviary you could walk through. Hundreds of hb’s from all over the world, some with 8-9" beaks. You had to be quiet inside. I had several fly up and hover inches from my floral shirt while we were in there. From what I’ve read, pound for pound they are the most aggressive birds on the Planet.
Years ago I was at a party and after several beers went out on the porch to nap. There was a loud buzzing noise and I opened my eyes to see a humming bird hovering back and forth in front of my face. It was a little disconcerting to have a bird that close to my eyes, but kinda cool too.
My husband was confronted by a hummingbird while on his postal route, with the bird right up in his face. He almost thought it was a big moth at first, until he did a double-take. It was the first time he’d noticed a hummingbird “in person.”
I told him he shouldn’t be surprised about the bird’s behavior - the Aztecs considered hummingbirds the avatar of their god of war.
I completely forgot - I had a hummingbird “buzz” my bright pink floral bikini when it was hanging out on the line. It kept zipping between the two halves of the suit, apparently wondering why it wasn’t a flower when it sure looked like one.
Different animal entirely: My husband had an iguana in St. Thomas tentatively taste his red-gemmed class ring by licking the gem when we were on vacation there. We’d fed it some red hibiscus blossoms and apparently it was checking to see if he’d been holding out on handing over all the blossoms.
I got buzzed I don’t know how many times by hummingbirds at my parent’s house. There was one bold little bird that would land on your hand and just SCOLD you. 'Twas funny.
I’ve posted it somewhere here before; I was attacked by a hummer that didn’t like my flash photography. He was quite indignant and stabbed me twice in the temple in about 1/34 of a second and zoomed away. Drew blood, the little bastard. Apologies, Collibri.
Our major source of entertainment in summer is watching the hummers. My husband swears he can tell them apart, but all I can identify is male and female. They’re a bit shy when they first arrive, but after a week or so, they’re part of the family.
In miles per hour, how fast do they fly?
And they’re so feisty. If they were people, would they be jerks?
I should say that there are similar birds in Eurasia/Africa and in Australia, but they are products of convergent evolution (they have similar feeding adaptations, etc., but are not closely related to true hummingbirds.) Some of those, like Australian honeyeaters and sunbirds, might have been included in the exhibit.
Maybe road runners are aggressive to other animals, but hummers go after people. We have a male we call Rambo that has claimed our humungous honeysuckle vine and will dogfight any other male away from his turf. He will come to me and investigate me closely if I’m working around in the yard near his spot. My mom has some that will perch on her. Absolutely fearless, those suckers are.
They’re not drinking. They’re taking a shower. I’ve watched one splash around in the tiny bit of water trapped in a cupped leaf - world’s tiniest birdbath.
And yes, you haven’t truly lived until you’ve been roundly scolded by a hummingbird.
Nope, not according to the guy who invented the lightsaber sound. Quite fascinating how he did it. Regarding hummingbirds, I love photographing them, but it’s quite challenging because a lot of times you end up with nothing to show in the photo!
We have a hummingbird nest in the hanging lamp outside our front door. It gets re-used every year. I have photos of the little hummers growing up and then flying away here: One Two Three
