I wish it would stop flapping those wings so I can see better.

mid air refueling

re: #2 albusteve

mid air refueling

Drinking while driving.

re: #1 Walter L. Newton

I get to see them resting all the time by my little pond. It's a rare treat for most people to see them still but I get to see it all the time.

If I could do that I'd always leave the house.

Technology again helping us to appreciate the natural world. That is amazing. What is also amazing is how camera technology has helped us see this.

I've seen that happen hundreds of times, but never like that!

re: #4 Killgore Trout

I get to see them resting all the time by my little pond. It's a rare treat for most people to see them still but I get to see it all the time.

The deck of my house is at tree top level and I can watch them sitting still guarding their feeder. Have 3 feeders at my house.
Love hummingbirds!

Time Warp- Wednesdays @ 8pm E/P only on Discovery Channel

Too bad it's on during lost.

re: #4 Killgore Trout

I get to see them resting all the time by my little pond. It's a rare treat for most people to see them still but I get to see it all the time.

they almost swarm around my flowers and feeders all summer...three or four at a time...there are zillions of the little guys here in ABQ

re: #4 Killgore Trout

I get to see them resting all the time by my little pond. It's a rare treat for most people to see them still but I get to see it all the time.

They're all over Colorado, especially in the mountains. So may people have hummingbird feeders outside their houses.

I even named my lapidary work "Hummingbird Creations" when I was working stone 5 or so years ago.

Very popular bird around here.

Amazing and beautiful. The body is motionless.

re: #9 Killgore Trout

Time Warp- Wednesdays @ 8pm E/P only on Discovery Channel

[Video]

Too bad it's on during lost.

Well, LOST is done for the season, so that should free up an hour to watch until 2010.

We have a crazy hummingbird guy near Seattle.

Okay, not crazy, but... 100 oz of nectar a day? That is some dedication.

Crazy hummingbird guy

re: #7 wrenchwench

I've seen that happen hundreds of times, but never like that!

I have too!
A couple of times a year, we put out hummingbird feeders, and we have tons of them coming in to feed.

What's amazing about the ones we get . . . they get so busy fighting each other for the "territory" of the feeder, I don't know know how they manage to get any nutrition! They will spend HOURS chasing each other around. We saw this particularly after Gustav last year, when the storm destroyed so much vegetation and everybody put out their hummingbird feeders - the feeders were overwhelmed, but little feeding went on because the birds were anxiously trying to stake out territory.

Natural selection demonstration!

Is the video still working, cause it's not for me?

re: #17 CmdrGuard

Nevermind...

Feeding wildlife is almost universally condemned, but somehow hummingbirds get a pass. I've never heard anybody object to feeding them. Aren't there some flowers they should be pollinating or something?

I couldn't believe how graceful and beautiful it was.

Wow. Way cool.

Photoshop!

Absolutely beautiful!

Makes me tired to watch it. The little guy is working so hard. (My shoulders & arms hurt).

I am so envious of you guys who get to see hummingbirds all the time! My next door neighbor and I usually get one female and one juvenile traveling south in early September. We both hang out feeders. (It really burns me up that the hummers visit her el cheapo plastic feeder three times as much as my expensive ruby glass and copper work of art.) I also serve up hummingbird friendly flowers. They like the lantana I plant every year for them, as well as the cardinal climbers (which I didn't plant this year). But my husband chopped down my trumpet vine last fall. His current main objective in life is to stamp out all the volunteers. (On a serious note: trumpet vines are incredibly invasive. They spread under ground, and a single vine will infest not only your entire yard, but all of your neighbors' yards. They're worse than crabgrass. I wish somebody had warned me before I planted mine.)

Our hummers are also very protective of the feeders. I was watching for them from the porch one afternoon, and one chased the other right past me. I didn't realize hummers could twitter loud enough for an aging human to hear. Wow!

We also have Hummingbird Moths around here. You don't see them nearly as often as the birds, but some people never realize they've seen an insect. They look a lot like the birds when they are feeding. Some bird-identifying books include the moth so people can distinguish them.

re: #26 wrenchwench

I usually get a couple of those during the course of the summer. They're fun to watch.

Not hummingbird, but the thread is one of the rare opportunities to post this link:

I love how he appears to sulk when the petting stops - and I don't think it's a case of projection or anthropomorphism: I myself live with Poopzilla, a flight-handicapped pigeon who demands several hours of petting and demonstrative affection per day - with hell to pay if he doesn't get it!

it reminds me of kurt vonnegut's books. i wonder if the hummingbird's awareness is running at that slow-motion speed? and that humans in his eyes are slow lumbering giants.

Nature rocks!

Is it wrong that I was aroused by that?

Fantastic!

I watch something like that and never cease to be amazed. Wonder when the bird DNA and insect DNA managed to cross and poof! come up with the hummingbird? Budgie eats a dragonfly and voila? No intelligent design there, no siree, nadda, non, nope.

and don't even think to start to accuse me of being a creationist/ID nutcase...

What's weird is that the body doesn't seem to rise and fall.
I would expect the forward stroke to make it rise, and maybe fall on the backward stroke.
Or even if it's double-picking, a rise on the stroke, and a fall on the pause.

Lucky they don't ask ME how to fly - what do I know?

Hand feeding a hummingbird:

This is what those wings sound like at full speed:

Time Warp is the coolest show

It is truly amazing how slowly they flap their tiny wings. And yet, they fly!