Laura Erickson's For the Birds

(Recording of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird)

With the passage of August, hummingbirds are starting to show up at many feeders once again. This time of year it is crucial for hummers to put on weight. In the same way that my skinny big brother pigged out for weeks before a wrestling match back in high school, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds fatten up before they leave the Northland on the long flight for Central America. Adult male hummingbirds, which haven’t had to work on anything else all summer, are ready to go first. They’re already moving—I noticed three zipping by when I was counting migrants at the Lakewood Pumping Station on Sunday the 13th, and just about all of them will be gone by the end of the month. Adult females must regain the weight lost while they took care of their babies, but most of them will be gone by mid-September. After that, virtually all the hummingbirds remaining at Northland feeders will be immatures—babies that hatched out this summer and are still learning how to find the best flowers and how to catch tiny insects.

Hummingbirds visit an average of 1500 flowers a day just to maintain their weights, and it takes even more time and diligence to add on a layer of fat, especially when you’re constantly exercising the way hummers do.

Although many people are reluctant to feed hummers by late September, believing that their feeders might seduce hummingbirds into staying too long into the fall, the truth of the matter is that a Ruby-throated Hummingbird’s instinctive drive to migrate is far stronger than either common sense or its own personal laziness would allow. Hummers have an absolute need to fly south in late summer, but they can’t take off until they’ve put on enough fat to fuel the flight. Contrary to the old myth, they can’t just hitch a ride on a bigger bird’s back. By the time they leave, they’ll be up to 4.5 grams—a little less than a nickel—but once they’ve muscled their way across the Gulf of Mexico, their weight’ll have dropped by half, and they’ll be down to the weight of one thin dime. Two grams of fat can fuel them for a non-stop flight of 26 hours.

Of course all that fuel would go to naught without an excellent navigation system, and hummingbirds have one of the best. With all the parents gone ahead of them, the young birds will still have no trouble winging their way down through thousands of miles of unfamiliar territory without getting lost.

Hummingbirds are of course attracted to flowers as well as to feeders. When you’re on a walk through the woods, check out jewelweed and other orange and red flowers for hummingbirds. I wear a red hat in the field, and have watched hummers who for one joyous second believed my hat to be the biggest flower in the universe.

Hummingbird feeders are probably the best way to get good looks at these avian powerhouses. But there are two warnings when you feed hummingbirds. First, never use honey. A bacterium normally found in honey is lethal to hummingbirds. Also, change your sugar water every two or three days. I just read in Paul Ehrlich’s new book, The Birder’s Handbook, that within 48 hours the sugar, which slowly begins fermenting the moment you set it out, and within 2 or 3 days may cause the hummingbirds’ livers to enlarge.

If good things come in small packages, the hummingbird is one of the best.

(Recording of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird)

This is Laura Erickson and this program has been “For the Birds.”

Revised script for date unknown

(Recording of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird)

Now that it’s August, hummingbirds are starting to show up at many feeders once again. This time of year it is crucial for hummers to put on weight. In the same way that my skinny big brother pigged out for weeks before a wrestling match back in high school, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds fatten up before they leave the Northland on the long flight for Central America. Adult male hummingbirds, which haven’t had to work on anything else all summer, are ready to go first. They’re already moving, and just about all of them will be gone by the end of the month. Adult females must regain the weight lost while they took care of their babies, but most of them will be gone by mid-September. After that, virtually all the hummingbirds remaining at Northland feeders will be immatures—babies that hatched out this summer and are still learning how to find the best flowers and how to catch tiny insects.

Hummingbirds visit an average of 1500 flowers a day just to maintain their weights, and it takes even more time and diligence to add on a layer of fat, especially since they’re constantly exercising.

Although many people are reluctant to feed hummers by late September, believing that their feeders might seduce hummingbirds into staying too long into the fall, the truth of the matter is that a Ruby-throated Hummingbird’s instinctive drive to migrate is far stronger than either common sense or its own personal laziness would allow. Hummers have an absolute need to fly south in late summer, but they can’t take off until they’ve put on enough fat to fuel the flight. Contrary to the old myth, they can’t just hitch a ride on a bigger bird’s back. By the time they leave, they’ll be up to 4.5 grams, weighing a little less than a nickel, but once they’ve muscled their way across the Gulf of Mexico, their weight’ll have dropped by half, and they’ll be down to the weight of one thin dime. Two grams of fat can fuel them for a non-stop flight of 26 hours.

Of course all that fuel would go to naught without an excellent navigation system, and hummingbirds have one of the best. With all the parents gone ahead of them, the young birds will still have no trouble winging their way down through thousands of miles of unfamiliar territory without getting lost.

Hummingbirds are of course attracted to flowers as well as to feeders. When you’re on a walk through the woods, check out jewelweed and other orange and red flowers for hummingbirds. I wear a red hat in the field, and have watched hummers who for one joyous second believed my hat to be the biggest flower they’d ever seen.

Hummingbird feeders are probably the best way to get good looks at these avian powerhouses. But there are two warnings when you feed hummingbirds. First, never use honey. A fungus normally found in honey is lethal to hummingbirds. Also, change your sugar water every two or three days. In warm spells, it takes less than 48 hours for the sugar to ferment enough to cause the hummingbirds’ livers to enlarge.

If good things come in small packages, the hummingbird is one of the best, both outside and in.

(Recording of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird)

This is Laura Erickson and this program has been “For the Birds.”