Hummingbirds put on a show as they head south

The annual fall migration of many of our feathered friends is currently well underway.

A number of folks have been happy to report considerable hummingbird activity of late at their backyard flowers and feeders as the bulk of these tiny treasures make their way into and through our area on their way to more tropical destinations for the winter. These minuscule marvels can put on quite an air show as they challenge one another for feeding rights at feeders or a patch of hummer-favored flowers. Hummingbirds are the true masters of flight, and possess amazing aerobatic abilities. A hummingbird can fly in any direction at any time it chooses; it can also fly backward and even upside down. In some of their most spirited aerial battles they can be observed to use every maneuver as they seek to dominate and drive other hummers from a preferred feeding location.

When not engaged in their hyper-active aerial lifestyle, hummers most often make themselves inconspicuous by finding a perch in a secluded spot from which they can keep an eye on their favored food source in order to defend it from any other hummer that might intrude into their territory.

Someone recently asked where hummingbirds go at night. Like other birds, they usually seek shelter in vegetation, often a dense vine tangle or tall shrub where their size and coloration allows them to blend in with the foliage of the plant. Trying to find a hummer perched motionless amid the foliage of a plant can be nearly impossible to achieve, without having observed the bird flying to the spot.

Among the smallest warm-blooded creatures in the world (the bee hummingbird of Cuba is the smallest warm-blooded creature, with adult males weighing less that 2 grams,) hummingbirds require an inordinate amount of energy for their size just to survive. If a 150-pound human had the metabolism of a hummingbird, they’d have to ingest in the neighborhood of 160,000 calories per day to survive. A study performed in the 1970s concluded a ruby- throated hummingbird would need to visit about 1,000 fuchsia flowers per day to meet their sugar requirements. These tiny birds cannot wait long to find a meal, and every meal they find could be their last. Yet these incredible Aves can cross the Gulf of Mexico twice per year in order to meet their biological imperatives. They are truly amazing creatures, among the most amazing that live on our planet.

This story was originally published August 18, 2016 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Hummingbirds put on a show as they head south."