Diminutive Dynamos At Home In Many Yards

from Field Reports, Outdoors & Travel section, August 10, 1997: Humming the Net The correct Internet address for the hummingbird Website reported July 27 is http://www.derived.com/~lanny/hummers/frames/welcome.hmtl/

The little bird with the big appeal, diminutive hummingbirds are irresistibly fascinating and strikingly beautiful. Marvels in flight, they are able to outmaneuver and outfly birds many times their size.

They are the “top gun” of the bird world, with the ability to hover in position and fly backward - and for brief moments, perform wide back flips so they look like they’re flying upsidedown.

With all their charm, perhaps virtue is too much to ask. Male hummingbirds are utterly promiscuous.

The ruby-throated hummingbird weighs less than one-tenth of an ounce. You could mail ten of them for one first-class stamp.

The smallest hummer, the Cuban “bee” hummingbird, weighs an incredible one-fourteenth of an ounce and measures only two inches in length.

More than 300 species of hummingbirds have been documented, with the greatest number found within 10 degrees of the equator. They range as far north as Alaska and as far south as Chile. Sixteen species breed in the United States, migrating south every fall to winter in Mexico and Central America.

East of the Mississippi River, where only the ruby-throated hummingbird commonly occurs, the bird flies more than 500 miles non-stop across the Gulf of Mexico during its migration.

The rufous hummingbird migrates 3,000 miles from Mexico to its breeding grounds in Alaska. Relative to body length, this is the longest migration of any bird. Before migrating, the birds increase their body weight by 50 percent, storing the energy needed for the journey in additional body fat Because of their tiny size and rapid wing speed (up to 78 times per second during regular flight), hummingbirds have an extremely high rate of metabolism they consume half their weight in sugar each day from flower nectar or hummingbird feeders.

In addition to nectar, they obtain protein from small insects and spiders. To keep up with a hummingbird, a 170-pound man would have to eat the equivalent of 285 pounds of hamburger each day and exercise enough to burn 155,000 calories.

A yard landscaped with birds and animals in mind is the key to any wildlife-watching hobby.

One of the best ways to get hummingbirds to use your feeders is to entice them to your yard with red flowers such as bee balm, trumpet vines, columbine, honeysuckle or zinnias.

While hummingbirds are attracted to areas with lots of flowers, they have no sense of smell, so you can plant nectar-rich flowers with no scent as their domain.

Once the birds are accustomed to using your feeders, you can move them just about anywhere and they will follow. If you have an aggressive hummer that claims one feeder as its own and won’t let others feed, hang another feeder in a different part of your yard.

As a general rule, more feeders cut down on this aggression, and you will have more hummingbirds.

Commercially prepared instant nectar, which closely duplicates the natural sweetness of flowers and doesn’t require boiling, is available at bird feeding specialty stores.

Or you can mix your own.

Hummingbird feeders need to be cleaned and the nectar solution changed every two to three days to prevent fermentation and the growth of mold.

The bottle and parts should be washed with hot water and a little vinegar and thoroughly rinsed before refilling with fresh sugar solution.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos

MEMO: These 2 sidebars appeared with the story: 1. HUMMERS HOME BREW Fill your hummingbird feeders with a mixture of four parts water to one part granulated sugar, boiled for two minutes to retard fermentation. This approximates the sucrose content (21 percent) of flowers preferred by hummers. Stronger concentrations are not recommended. Do not use artificial sweeteners or honey. Keep any unused portion refrigerated. National Bird-Feeding Society

2. HUMMING THE INTERNET Hummingbirds have a nifty site on the World Wide Web. The home page has helpful tips on feeding, reviews of feeders and much more at http://www.derived.com/ lanny/hummers/frames/welcome.html/