This wonderful 2012 BBC documentary is a must-view for hummingbird admirers – and fans of the inimitable David Attenborough.
Thor and I were enchanted by this gorgeous documentary – the hummingbirds like living jewels in all colors. As always, genial host David Attenborough guides us through exotic lands, explaining the behavior and evolution of different hummingbird species. They come in many different colors and behaviors, many of the different species evolving to feed on the nectar of specific flowers and thereby to spread their pollen as fertilizing “messengers.”
The specialization has made them both successful and precarious, as climate change can threaten the balance. But how wonderful that one species has a swordlike beak longer than its body, in order to dip into the nectar of a very long, bell-like flower. Another beak has the perfect curve to fit the curve of its special flower. And the territorial behavior many of us have witnessed on our hummer feeders – especially with the pugnacious little Anna’s hummingbirds that frequent Thor’s feeders – is essential to survival of many of the birds in the wild. They must guard their food sources from interlopers.
Thor keeps two feeders going, and all spring and summer we enjoy watching the acrobatic flyers, who often squabble protectively over “their” feeder. They enjoy our wild garden flowers.
We learned that hummingbirds have the highest metabolism rate of any vertebrate, with heartbeats up to 1200 times per minute. Their wings flap about 50 times per second, just a blur to our eyes, as you can see in the above photo. They are the only birds capable of flying backwards, upside down, and hovering completely in place or rotating on the spot.
The males are the colorful sex, as usual with birds, with iridescent colors that can be hidden from predators, or flared to attract female attention.
The do love red flowers!
Thor caught a photo when three were of them were actually sharing one of our feeders without fighting!
They love to bathe in rain or at our garden bubbler fountain:
Here’s a YouTube of our bathing bubbler:
Here’s a link to a YouTube version of the entire documentary. Enjoy!
Happy hummer watching!
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You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, a First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and an International Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). It’s also a love letter to the stunning beauty of her native Pacific Northwest wild places. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
