A Tiny Friend – With beauty and brains?

Do you have a tiny friend who has both beauty and brains? Are you an avid hummingbird fancier? If so, you have probably learned by now that the little guys are gorgeous, curious, and very intelligent.

I began my hummingbird pastime back when I lived in the eastern part of the U.S. We had only one species to enjoy during mild months of spring and summer; the Ruby Throated hummingbird. After some years, I became well familiar with their fearless curiosity and intelligence proven by their excellent memories.

I distinctly remember one year at the beginning of the season I decided to move the preferred “sipper” to what I thought was a better location than the previous year. Within a day or two later, I was standing outside talking with a neighbour when I was “accosted” by some of the newly arrived hummers buzzing back and forth around me.

Then, they would quickly fly to the old location of their feeder and back to me, letting me know they weren’t pleased that I had moved their favorite feeder without consulting them. I quickly put one of the feeders in the old location and they all headed over for a drink before shortly accepting the new locations as well.

That was proof to me that they had been customers from previous years and had an excellent memory. Neither were they bashful about coming close to peer into my face while I sat reading in a chair in proximity of their feeders. Curiosity is one of the indices of intelligence. Knowing how curious and adaptable they were, I began my quest anew here in Costa Rica.

Our hummingbird pleasure is expanded many fold here in the tropics where we not only get to enjoy dozens of species, but due to the mild climate, we can almost enjoy them year round. So each year I have set up and expanded my feeding stations, doing little experiments to see if they prefer location or style or colours of feeders. Like the hamburger commercial, I have discovered “just build them, and they will come.”

Besides the enjoyment off seeing the beauty of their iridescent colours and their raucous antics, the challenge of trying to capture their beauty in a good photograph is a thrill. Their small size and rapid flight make it quite a quest for those of us not blessed with a state of the art “National Geographic” quality zoom camera. In absence of one of those pricey zoom lenses, I decided I would try to take advantage of their accepting nature and curiosity to get close enough to get a decent photo.

This takes time and lots of patience. It means keeping the feeders well supplied so they are used to feeding on a daily basis and having them used to my presence nearby. For that, I have been generally accepted among “the group” and have even made a few special friends. One of the White-Necked Jacobin hummers has proved to be such a ham that he will seemingly pose in any position I would like whenever I have my camera out. My special little buddy is a brown Little “Hermit” who has followed me into the house and up the stairs looking for me and will regularly seek me out and fly in front of my face as if to greet me. It makes me feel really special to have such a tiny trusting friend.

But the most remarkable account of the apparent friendship between a hummer and a human, I read in Skutch and Singer’s book The Life of the Hummingbird.

The artist, Arthur Fitzpatrick lay sick in a Californian sanitarium where he hung a feeder outside his bedroom window where he could watch his feathered visitors. After some skirmishing, a male rufous hummingbird won possession of it as his feeding territory where he spent much time sipping and chasing the others off. The presence of the brilliant creature so full of vitality cheered the invalid and hastened his recovery.

Once outside in a wheelchair, the hummer left the feeder to zoom around the man’s head and then pose in front of his face in a friendly greeting. When the man finally returned to his home in a car, some eight miles away, the little rufous followed him to his house. Finally to build up his strength, the artist began to take daily walks always accompanied by his tiny feathered friend.

Always curious, the little bird would fly ahead and wait for his slow human friend to catch up. During the walk, the little hummer would draw attention to anything novel that the artist may otherwise overlook stopping to hover above: a family of quail chicks, some baby skunks, and even a rattlesnake lying motionless next to the path.

After his full recovery, the artist left to go back to work in the city and a month passed before he returned to his retreat in the mountains. Yet seconds after he alighted from his car, the little rufous returned whizzing around his head and dancing back and forth in his face. It was apparent that the little bird simply enjoyed the man’s company.

Some Interesting Facts About Hummingbirds:

1. They can live for over 14 years.
2. A heartbeat of 1,000 beats per minute is not unusual. Compare with a human of roughly 70.
3. Their iridescence is not due to colour pigments but due to the structure of the feather so the brilliance can only be seen in certain directions — again making photo capture a challenge. When he displays to the female, he turns in just the right direction so that his brilliance will be seen.
4. They don’t mate for life and the male can have many ladies at once.
5. The female alone does all the nest building and child rearing.
6. Their predators can be small hawks, big frogs, snakes and even praying mantids.

Though the photos would not win any award, all of the photos were taken with a five year old basic Kodak digital camera without a zoom lens. The hummers in their trust, simply allowed me to get close enough for a shoot.

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Written by Gloria Dempsey. Zoologist in Arenal, Costa Rica. June 2008

If you would to contribute to the rescue and care of wildlife in Costa Rica, please send US cashier’s cheques to our Zoologist friend in Arenal Gloria Dempsey:

Gloria Dempsey
5717-28 Nuevo Arenal – Tilaran
Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

Or you can email Gloria Dempsey here.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.