screech, it’s a Swallow-tailed Hummingbird.
/hijack
And while I remember, I wanted to ask if you’re doing the World Series of Birding this year, and if you can use a sponsor again. I remember you doing this a few years ago. Email me (in the first link) if you are, screech.
That’s funny!
[/obsessive etymologist]
Last summer a hummingbird got trapped in our workshop. It was bumping into the underside of the roof, looking for a way out. I finally sent my husband up into the rafters to catch him. We both petted the little darling before we let him go. He went right for the feeder.
Eats_Crayons , I’m going to call them feather helicopters from now on.
Oh, have I got one for you guys. I didn’t see this myself, but the Child Formerly Known as the Tzeroling saw it and duly reported it. Not believing her, we consulted with Mamma O, a very knowledgeable amateur ornithologist and entomologist, who promptly confirmed the accuracy of the below.
While at the Long Branch Nature Center on an overnight school trip, she saw a hummingbird.
Being eaten by a praying mantis.
I bet she saw one of these:
http://flzhgn.home.mindspring.com/~flzhgn/humoth.htm
Why the spoiler?
No, it was broad daylight and she wasn’t the only one who saw it. And, as I said, the fact was verified by me own mum who has dozens of field guides and other such works. It weren’t a moth. Go here for the first hit on a Google search I just performed if you’re still doubtful.
Why the spoiler? Effect, I guess - I’d never used one before and it seemed like a good place to use it.
We see Ruy-Throated hummingbirds regularly at the wife’s family cottage (near Perth) and at my mother’s cottage (north of Ottawa near Gracefield, Que) before she sold it. I’ve never seen them in the city though.
I stand corrected. 
I can’t tell if I’m being whooshed here or not, carnivorousplant. My mom gave cites - i.e. the book in which she read the verification that praying mantises do indeed eat hummingbirds (and not just hummingbird moths), I even gave you a link to photos of what is clearly a hummingbird falling prey to a praying mantis. I mean, what more do you want?
You are not being whooshed. I believe you.
Maybe I was too polite.
I believe you dammit!
You betta recognize, beeeyatch! 
It’s all good. Forgive the snippy tone, pretty please? With a hummingbird on top?
We mostly get ruby-throated hummingbirds around here. I like to sit out on the patio to watch them eat. Most of them just hit one of the little yellow “flowers” on the feeder and then fly off. Last year, however, there was one little guy who would visit each little “flower” at least once before leaving. Sometimes he (?) would zip over to stare me in the face before leaving.
It ain’t easy. I had to color-mark territorial birds for my thesis research in Panama, which required cutting out and gluing together tiny acrylic strips that looped aroung the leg and hung below it when the bird perched. It didn’t seem to bother them, but I wouldn’t want to use the method on a migratory species. The tags eventually fell off.
I’ve worked on hummers in Alaska, California, Colorado, Trinidad, Panama, and Peru. My favorite hummingbird sighting was a male Rufous feeding in a field of red columbine in a meadow high above the Mendehall Glacier in Alaska.
I’ve seen the Sword-billed Hummingbird a few times in Ecuador and Peru. They fly around with the bill pointing up at an angle like a man trying to walk with a pool cue balanced on his nose. I’ve also seen the Giant Hummingbird, which is about the size of a starling, in Ecuador.
Here in Panama, we have 58 species of hummingbirds. One of my favorite places to watch them is at the Los Quetzales cabins in the Western Highlands, where they put out dozens of feeders. A battle has been going on there between a Violet Sabrewing and a Magnificent Hummingbird for the last 10 years at least (not the same individuals of course, but there always seem to be a couple of those two species going at it.)
Can I tell you that it’s little things like this silly back ‘n’ forth that make me love this board? I just about peed my panties laughing!
Thanks, you two. 
You watch your ass, Moth Boy!
The news here once ran an story on an old retired guy who attached three hummingbird feeders to wooden dowels, which were then attached to a football helmet, which he wore. It was so neat - this old guy hung out on the back deck of his retirement cabin with hummers feeding within a foot or so of his nose.
The hummingbirds that visit the flowering tree just outside of my parents’ backyard like to dive bomb my cat, Raven. Raven’s just so confused by the whole thing.
There’s an America’s Funniest Videos bit where a guy stuck one of those hummingbird feeder flowers in his mouth and had a hummer trying to drink from it.
Laughing Lagomorph, you may envy us for our hummers but consider that I’ve never seen a cardinal in person. I’ve never seen a hummingbird moth (Though I love those things. They’re so cool looking. I had a picture of one on my desktop for months.) or a praying mantis or a praying mantis catching and eating either kind of hummer, though I fully believe they’re stong enough amd quick enough to do it.
Mostly, I’d like to be able to chase lightning bugs through a field on a warm summer’s night. Everyone should be able to do that. Almost makes me wish we’d stayed in Michigan when I was little.
Colibri, thanks for sharing your experiences. I’d like to hear more. It’s amazing the wonderful things you can find in Alaska. The rufous hummer is one of the many gems up there.
Cardinals! They are as thick as pigeons around here. One of my favorite birds, brightly colored and a wonderful singer that sticks around all year. Well, you make me feel a little better. I also get Goldfinches very reliably, in the summer they are in our yard pretty much every day. They are fun to watch, very acrobatic. The males are an unbelievably bright yellow.
Colibri you could conceivably be seeing the same individuals after 10 years, couldn’t you? I understand hummingbirds (one, anyway) have lived that long in the wild. You would know better than me, though.
All you hummingbird lovers should check out this page of pictures. I guess the guy lives right in a migration path. Truly amazing. I get a few every year, they like my garden flowers. One day I was working around a big pile of landscape rock we had removed, and a little hummer was warming himeslf up on the rocks. That was the closest I’ve ever been to one.