The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird at My Feeder Seems [Derived Headline]

Summary

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The ruby-throated hummingbird at my feeder seems more a jewel than a real live animal. His iridescent red throat feathers sparkle in the sun. He performs seemingly impossible aerial feats, flying straight up, weaving and dodging, hovering in place, and even flying backward. As always, our hummer guy arrived this year before his lady friend and staked out a feeding territory around our azaleas. His tiny body weighs only three-quarters of an ounce, and that includes his feathers. The wings we see as a blur are actually flapping about 53 times per second. This teeny dynamo maintains a body temperature of 105-109 degrees, a fever that would soon kill you and me.

It takes a lot of food to power this active little body. Hummingbirds eat up to eight times their weight in nectar every day. They quickly excrete the water content, but the concentrate is still as much as their body weight daily. They do not survive on sugar alone, however. They also eat tiny spiders and insects found in flowers.

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The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird at My Feeder Seems [Derived Headline]

They can starve to death in as little as two hours. Overnight, they have to shut their engines down, letting their bodies cool. This is not quite hibernation, but a torpor. On heavi...

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