I’d never seen one up close and personal till I moved to CA. In our back yard in San Jose, there were a couple that liked the flowers on our ginko tree. I’d be out there with a can of soda and they’d divebomb and hover centimeters from my ear, freaking me right the hell out. Sounded like mosquitos, but GIHUGHC.
Cute little things though, even if they are a bit unsettling up close.
Bosda, that’s why I can’t understand why I haven’t seen more. On the side of my house is what can only be described as a honeysuckle hell, and yet this little guy was nowhere near the honeysuckles.
I saw one once. I thought the little guy was a large green bee at first. Don’t know what I was thinking that day. (“Large green bee?!?!?”)
They’re cool. I wish I lived somewhere where I could see more of them.
We have lots of Anna’s where I live and I think black-throated (don’t have a book to check here). I like to watch their dive-bombing patterns-- that’s also a way to identify the types-- they have particular aerial displays. Does it fly really high, dive down in a capital J, hover for a minute, and then ascend again? (I think that’s Anna’s patter, for example). They’re really territorial, too. On the route I jog I know which little trees are ‘owned’ by a hummingbird-- the same bird will be sitting at the top of the same shrub every day making his/her little machine-man song, or divebombing crows in the way.
I think the first time I saw one was when I was 11 in Alaska and it scared the hell out of me. The biggest damn insect I’d ever seen.
We had one in our garage here in da UP of Michigan a few weeks ago. The poor lil’ bugger didn’t know how to get out, and was pretty dazed. I ended up grabbing him in a huge poof of paper towels and bringing him outside. I tried to put him in a tree, but he flew away and ended up on the ground, dazed and confused. When I went to check on him a couple hours later, he was gone. I hope he recovered and flew away as opposed to making dinner for a cat!
**Hummingbirds are such fascinating little creatures! **
We have several Ruby-throated hummers who visit our feeder, our honeysuckle and our monarda (bee’s balm) from late May/early June until late September. It’s such a treat to be out in the yard by the flowers or the feeder and have one whiz over your head or hover about your ears. They are very loud, indeed!
I’ve heard or read somewhere (I’m sorry, I don’t know where and can’t provide a cite right now) that when hummers migrate, they follow major waterways. This makes sense to me, because I’d never seen a hummingbird until I moved to my home here. I live just about a mile from the Wabash River, and we have a creek in our back yard that joins up with another, larger creek that feeds into the Wabash.
Has anyone ever heard or read something like this? I don’t want to propagate wrong or misleading information! 
((((((Hillbilly))))))
**Hummingbirds are such fascinating little creatures! **
We have several Ruby-throated hummers who visit our feeder, our honeysuckle and our monarda (bee’s balm) from late May/early June until late September. It’s such a treat to be out in the yard by the flowers or the feeder and have one whiz over your head or hover about your ears. They are very loud, indeed!
I’ve heard or read somewhere (I’m sorry, I don’t know where and can’t provide a cite right now) that when hummers migrate, they follow major waterways. This makes sense to me, because I’d never seen a hummingbird until I moved to my home here. I live just about a mile from the Wabash River, and we have a creek in our back yard that joins up with another, larger creek that feeds into the Wabash.
Has anyone ever heard or read something like this? I don’t want to propagate wrong or misleading information!
((((((Hillbilly))))))
I was sitting at my computer a few months ago, and out of nowhere comes a baby hummingbird…He was about the size of my thumbnail. He would come around every day about the same time, but I haven’t seen him since we had those cool nights last week.
At my parents’ house there’s a bush hummingbirds really seem to love–a cotoneaster. It’s only got little white flowers, but they spend more time there than at any of the red flowers my mother puts out for them. I’ve been surprised at how often I see them just sitting on the bush. For some reason I’d always thought hummingbirds spent all their time in flight.
When I was a child my uncle once brought me a hummingbird nest with (hatched) eggs in it. I was very upset that he’d left the hummingbirds homeless, but he said once the eggs hatched and the babies left the nest would be abandoned. Was he right? It certainly was adorable–about the size of a ping pong ball with M&Ms in it.
Now I’ve GOT to get a hummingbird feeder.
Max said it had a green back. (I’m assuming entirely green, including the rump.) If that was the case, it would eliminate both Rufous and Allen’s male since they always at least have at least the rump rufous. (Up to 5% of male Rufous have a partially green back like Allen’s and for these it is necessary to look at other characters like the tail feather width. AFAIK, there are no records of Allen’s in Colorado, although there are a few farther east.)
Though it’s hard to tell because the photos are a little dark, it looks like there is a faint tinge of buffy or rufous to the underparts. Male Broad-tails have green underparts tinged with buff, although this one seems a bit rustier than usual. It doesn’t look nearly rich enough to be a Rufous, though.
Yes, hummers get their protein, vitamins and minerals from snacking on insects (as Ferrous said, often caught in flight. Some tropical types seem to feed on insects and spiders quite a lot. North American hummers can also eke by on insects for a while if there doesn’t happen to be any flowers around when they arrive in an area on migration.
**
The only kind regularly found in the eastern U.S. is the Ruby-throat. There are about a dozen more species in the western U.S., especially the southwest. There are about 320 species in all, all in the Western Hemisphere, breeding from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Here in Panama we have more than 50 species. There are places in Ecuador where you can get more than a dozen species visiting a set of feeders at the same time (lots of chasing, though!)
Yes, hummers get their protein, vitamins and minerals from snacking on insects (as Ferrous said, often caught in flight. Some tropical types seem to feed on insects and spiders quite a lot. North American hummers can also eke by on insects for a while if there doesn’t happen to be any flowers around when they arrive in an area on migration.
**
The only kind regularly found in the eastern U.S. is the Ruby-throat. There are about a dozen more species in the western U.S., especially the southwest. There are about 320 species in all, all in the Western Hemisphere, breeding from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Here in Panama we have more than 50 species. There are places in Ecuador where you can get more than a dozen species visiting a set of feeders at the same time (lots of chasing, though!)
I’ve seen quite a few ruby-throated hummingbirds, both at my place and at my parent’s house (a bit further to the south). They seem to enjoy visiting the feeder early in the morning. One or two will show up and circle the feeder, sipping from each of the little “flower” openings. Sometimes they will just hover and stare at you; every once in a while, one will fly up for a closer look. My parents have also noticed one hummingbird this summer who seems to enjoy hovering in front of the screen door on the patio and staring into the house.
Yes. Several years ago, we had an experience like yours and Athena’s. A hummer got in our garage and could not find the door again. It kept trying to fly through the ceiling. My wife hung a hummingbird feeder by the open garage door, in hope the bright color and the food would attract the bird and that it would then see the way out. That didn’t work.
Finally, I went out to the garage and tried to shoo the hummer toward the door with a dish towel. It panicked and ran into the wall. The bird was knocked silly and I was able to pick it up. I held it in my closed hand, with just its head sticking out. By then, it had been in the garage for hours so I figured it must be very hungry. When it woke up, I carried it to the feeder and watched as it stuck its long, narrow tongue into the feeder. When it quit eating, I carried it out of the garage and opened my hand. After several seconds, it buzzed off into the tree tops.
There’s probably a couple of dozen species that fit that description, including some of these guys
Here are a few other kinds:
My personal favorite is the Violet-crowned Woodnyph, even if the purple-and-green scheme does clash a bit, because it’s one of the species I studied for my thesis.
The Sword-billed Hummingbird, with a bill more than twice as long as its body, is prety cool too.