They're baaacccckkk.....Rufous hum hum. Flying over 32,000 kilometres ( that's about 2000 miles), spending spring in California, summer on the Pacific west coast (here on Vancouver island), and Alaska. Until July. Autumn finds them in the rocky Mountains, zooming down to winter in Mexico.
(Smart little thing!)"I'd like to be like a hummingbird..."-Shailene Woodley
Every year they show up at the feeder on my porch. Every year they steal the nests of the Annas ( green) hummers. And Every year, they joyfully dive bomb humans, birds, cats......fearless. Buzz Buzzz Buzzzz......they sound like bumble bees.
The adult male has a white breast.....female has orange feather and a dark tail....they buzz like helicopters around my head, charging for the feeder. Daring me, with their long bills.
Rufous feed continuously from May to September, Pretty AND feisty, for a little bird that only weighs about no more than 4 grams.
“A hummingbird flew up to me and just hovered there staring at me...
It’s tiny heart was pattering like a machine gun, and I thought, what a thing to have to work that hard every day just to stay alive, to be constantly on the verge of death.
And how satisfying every day must be that it survived.” – Unknown
From dawn to dusk they zoom about the garden, to the feeder , to the trees.... challenging green Annas hum hums ( as if they were Templar knights doing battle)
"I always loved those little creatures.There's a magical quality to them. I finally put one in song..." - Leonard Cohen
"Your outer beauty doesn't really matter; the only beauty that matters is the beauty of your soul.." -Unknown
Apparently, the male Rufous likes guarding large areas with lots of flowers. He wants ALL of the flowers to himself......he refuses to share! The female gets a bigger piece of the pie....more territory, maybe not as many flowers, but she has REAL ESTATE!
"May my faith always be, at the end of the day, like a hummingbird returning to its favourite flower..." -Sanober Khan
"A flash of harmless lightning. A mist of rainbow dyes. The burnished sunbeams brightening from flower to flower He flies..." -John B. Tabb
Rufous hum hums have excellent memories. They REMEMBER where feeders are located and beeline for them and will even return to places where feeders have been removed, just to check and see.
These hum hums breed as far north as southeastern Alaska. Their wings beating at 52-62 beats per second, they are determined little things, showing no fear, and can live up to 8 years of age.
"... either you take to believing in miracles or you stand still like the hummingbird. The miracle is that the honey is always there, right under your nose, only you were too busy searching elsewhere to realize it...................
The worst is ...being blind, blind to the fact that everything about life is in the nature of the miraculous..."-Henry Miller
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