A ping pong ball with wings...

...describes our chubby little migration-ready Ruby-throated Hummingbird! Rick and I were sitting on the deck yesterday evening eating our dinner when I looked up into a tree about 30 feet away and noticed what looked like a ping pong ball with wings resting among the leaves. I looked again and pointed him out to Rick. It was a fat little hummer ready for his big flight south...

This little hummingbird had been working hard to "enrich" his fat cells for his mighty trip south!
Hummingbirds need to double their weight to make the arduous trip safely. 

Our "house-hummers" flew the coop on Thursday, September 17 (it was a sad day). Hummingbirds migrate during the day, and ours must have taken off late in the morning, because we didn't see any the rest of the day, Friday or Saturday, but by Sunday afternoon, a new visitor had moved in (jubilation). He was a small and skittish juvenile Ruby-throated Hummingbird from the north, dropping in to fuel up for the next leg of his journey. We were used to our house-hummers who didn't mind our comings and goings and would hover inches from my face and hands as I changed the nectar in the feeders, but with our new visitor, if I even blinked, he would fly away. I texted my friend, Cheri, who lives a few houses up, and told her to watch her feeder. Maybe he was on his way to her. Within minutes, Cheri texted back that he was there! Then she would "blink," and he would take off in a huff for our house. Cheri and I texted back and forth that day while he ping-ponged between our feeders (and the huge trumpet honeysuckle vine that grows near our feeders). It was fun being able to predict his arrival. The next day, two more hummers dropped in, then another, then another. We appear to be a refueling and weight-gaining station for hummingbirds from the north as they wing their way south. I will keep my feeders stocked for a while, hoping to wring out the season as along as I can. The chatter of hummingbird-speak makes me happy, and getting to watch (and help out) hummingbirds migrating south is fun.

...yes, you're such a sweet little ping pong ball with wings!

If it were cold and he was fluffing up to stay warm, this fellow would look normal, but it was warm, and he was not fluffing up at all. He had gained the weight he needed to help him on his way south. I will watch for him today, but I bet he took off with the sun this morning. 

Hummingbird migration...
I've had three or four friends in the past couple of weeks as me how long they should keep their hummingbird feeders up. They don't want to impede their hummers' departure during fall migration. I always tell them, don't worry, a stocked feeder will not entice a hummingbird to stay longer than it should, but it might help a northern hummer on its flight south. Hummingbirds get itchy and jumpy when its time for them to migrate. They have an inner urge that drives them to leave triggered by the "intensity of daylight." As the days get shorter, hormones are released to increase their appetites so they can gain enough weight for their incredible journey south (from Mexico to Central America, as far south as Panama).

Hummers do not migrate in a flock, but they do fly out on favorable winds, so if there are many on the move, you might see several in a day. They usually fly during the day and sleep at night, except when they cross over the Gulf of Mexico. Hummingbirds fly low over the water, and it can take them 18-22 hours to cross. They can't sleep during this dangerous part of their journey and must have adequate fat reserves to fuel them across. Every time I think of these tiny little power houses winging low over the water my heart melts. Hummers are mighty birds! When hummers stop to rest along their journey, they may stay as short as one day, or as long as two weeks. I didn't know this, but I recently read when hummingbirds migrate, they fly low to the ground, just over treetops, so they can easily find nectar sources.

References
Click here for hummingbird migration details on the "World of Hummingbirds" website.
Click here for hummingbird FAQs on the "Hummingbird Journey North" website.
Click here for hummingbird migration basics on the "Hummingbirds.net" website.
A nice reference book is "Hummingbirds and Butterflies," by Bill Thompson III and Connie Toops.

How to make a ceramic pottery hummingbird ornament out of clay...

These ceramic hummingbird ornaments are simple and fun to make. You can make them into ornaments to hang on your tree or to hang on a hook in your garden or in a potted plant. You can also tie beautiful ribbons on them to decorate a package, or even put a grouping together to make a wind chime. Anyone can make them…just follow these easy steps and have fun!

A flock of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds fresh from the kiln waiting to have festive ribbons tied on them!

Step 1: Grab the clay!
Start with a lump of clay. High fire or low fire, it doesn't matter. Your teacher can help you pick out the best clay. If you are going to make wind chimes or an outdoor ornament, however, high fire clay is stronger and will tolerate temperature fluctuations better.

Step 2: Roll out the clay!
You can put the clay through an extruder or roll it out with a rolling pin. I use a canvas wrapped board with guides on the edge to guarantee I get an even thickness:

...use a rolling pin to roll out the clay (or an extruder if the studio has one).

Step 3: Cut out the hummingbird shapes.
Use the following pattern to get the basic outline, then place the pattern on the clay and cut out the bird shape using an exacto knife, a needle tool, or a pointy clay stylus:

Use this hummingbird pattern to cut out the shapes. You can make the pattern as large or as small as you like.

Step 4. Smooth out the cutouts.
Take a wet sponge and smooth out the edges. Cutting with a pointer or Exacto knife can leave a jaggy mess, so go over the clay with a damp sponge to smooth everything out:

...smooth out the rough edges of the clay hummingbird cutouts with a damp sponge. 

Step 5: Punch a hole in the top.
You can use a special hole puncher made for clay or just use the needle tool and gradually widen the hole:

...don't forget to punch a hole in each clay cutout!

Step 6. Let it dry...and wait...
One trick when working with flat clay cutouts is to use small boards of drywall. Place the cutouts on a flat piece of drywall board first, then place another board on top of the cutouts to keep them from warping as they dry. It can take up to two weeks for clay cutouts to dry completely, but when they are thin (1/4 to 1/2 inch) they usually dry within a week.

Step 7. Bisque fire the cutouts.
Your teacher or studio owner will bisque fire the cutouts when they are ready. Bisque firing changes the clay into ceramic material. When the cutouts come out of the kiln, they will be hard and white...and ready for glazing!

Step 8: Glaze the hummingbirds.
You can use any style when you glaze the hummingbirds, whether it’s detailed and realistic or modern and sketchy. I wanted these to be fun, colorful and carefree, so I went with a sketchy style that can be painted in a just a few brushstrokes:

Use any style to glaze the hummingbirds. I used a sketchy and fun style for this batch. The bright red and green look great on a Christmas tree or as a package ornament.    

     Follow these steps to paint the hummingbirds:
          1. Glaze the back and wings green.
          2. Glaze the belly white.
          3. Glaze the chin red.
          4. Finally, outline the bird in black.

Step 9. Fire it again!
After the second fire, they are good to go. Have fun decorating packages, making ornaments, or making a wind chime.

p.s. You can do this with cookie dough too!  ....or you can use any cookie cutter on clay.
...and I've already had three requests for other patterns: a chickadee, a cardinal, and a bluebird. I'll see if I can create a few more patterns tonight.

How to make three other easy clay bird projects
To make a ceramic pottery bird's nest with removable eggs, click here.
To make a ceramic pottery bird feeder, click here.
To make a ceramic owl or owl ornament, click here.

My hummingbirds are not always angelic...

...sometimes they perch with an undeniably honked-off and irritable look in their eyes defying any other humming-type bird to venture forth and try...just try...to get a sip of the sweet, sweet nectar...

Painting 172. Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird Guarding the Nectar

Watercolor

Rough Pencil sketch from my sketchbook of a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird

...I drew this sketch in the car while waiting for Matty. My ref was a poor-quality printout of a photo I took a couple of years ago. As a result, I couldn't see any feather detail, so I totally made up the feather configuration, choosing "poetic license" to give the feel of detail. Since this little female had such a fierce look in her eyes...and she was "poetic" in her own way, I thought D. H. Lawrence's poem "Humming-bird," where he depicts a hummingbird at the dawn of creation as a "jabbing, terrifying monster," was the perfect fit. When I watch our hummingbirds fight viciously over their food source in the summer, I totally get his image...

Humming-bird

I can imagine, in some otherworld
Primeval-dumb, far back
In that most awful stillness, that only gasped and hummed,
Humming-birds raced down the avenues.

Before anything had a soul,
While life was a heave of Matter, half inanimate,
This little bit chipped off in brilliance
And went whizzing through the slow, vast, succulent stems.

I believe there were no flowers, then,
In the world where the humming-bird flashed ahead of creation.
I believe he pierced the slow vegetable veins with his long beak.

Probably he was big
As mosses, and little lizards, they say, were once big.
Probably he was a jabbing, terrifying monster.
We look at him through the wrong end of the long telescope of Time,
Luckily for us.

by D. H. Lawrence

(excerpted from "The Little Big Book of Birds," by Tabori and Fried -- originally from "Birds, Beasts and Flowers," 1923)

...this is painting 72 in this year's 100 painting challenge...painting 172 in my 5 year, 500 painting challenge.

...more paintings for the challenge

Painting 108 - Northern Cardinal at Dusk

Watercolor, 12x16 Arches Cold Pressed 140 lb Paper

I saw this male cardinal at our local park. It was very cold and evening was starting to close in. He had puffed his feathers up for warmth and was strikingly beautiful against the dark winter sky. He is the same bird that shows up in painting three (Radioactive Cardinal) and in this post, but I painted him in a much looser style (I also darkened the sky...).

Painting 107 - Chiggy by Starlight

Watercolor, 7x10 Arches Cold Pressed 140 lb Paper

One evening a week or so ago I stocked the feeders around 9:00 p.m. anticipating a very cold morning with a covering of snow. It was so cold, and I was thinking about the little birds and how they were going to survive the long, cold night ahead. Birds have so many adaptations that help them foil the coldest of colds, but I still wondered if everyone was tucked in tight and ready to wait it out. It was nearly a full moon and the moon's light reflected off the snow in that quiet blue way that only happens deep in winter when the snow is thick on the ground. Stars swept across the sky and the immensity caused me to linger. Beauty is soft at night so it's always good to pause to take it all in, but my fingers were starting to protest so I had to move on, but before I went in "Chiggy by Starlight" popped into my head. I went inside and painted him, going over his white feathers with a fine-tipped white marker, hoping to capture the feel of the moon's glow...and the cold of the night.

Painting 106 - Green Topiary With One Red Bird Above and One Below

Watercolor, 9x12 Arches Cold Pressed 140 lb Paper

Summer heat was in mind as I painted this fun and quick painting (lots and lots of green to counteract the gray that descends in our area midwinter). It's a strange style for me, and it might be more art therapy than anything. The painting started as a watercolor and morphed into a watery acrylic. Along the way I carved a leaf stamp in an eraser (idea from Laure's blog) and stamped it all over using green acrylic paint. I then ran water over it to spread everything out. It makes me think of art I remember seeing as a child in the Swinging 60s, baby.

Painting 105 - Hummer Light

Watercolor, 6x8 Arches Cold Pressed 140 lb Paper

"Hummer Light" makes me happy--it's quick and sloppy with a feel of the moment. It's all watercolor--no sketching and probably created in under a minute. I really miss our hummers...they are nothing but watery memories right now...

Painting 104 - Sedgie in the High Meadow

Watercolor, 6x12 Arches Cold Pressed 140 lb Paper

I almost called this painting "Bad Sedgie" because of the Sedge Wren's annoying habit of diving into the cover of grass instead of sitting out in the open to be photographed. If you look in the bottom-right corner of the painting you can see a tiny Sedge Wren perched where he most often perches--nearly out of sight. I conjured this painting out of a memory from a sunny day in August of 2009 when a Sedge Wren visited VOA Park (he's never been back--post is here). Can you tell I'm missing the sun...and the green...and the flowers? Painting is an easy way to bring it back. Right now I'm working on a more detailed portrait of this little Sedge Wren. It should be finished soon.

Structural color and pigment in hummingbird feathers

This is the last post on hummingbirds. I promise!
As I’ve been watching our hummers over the past couple of weeks, I’ve wondered what produces that amazing flash of iridescence in their feathers. In school we learned blue birds don’t have blue pigment in their feathers. Instead, they have structural components that reflect and refract light to produce the blue color (structural color), so I assumed it might have something to do with that, but hummingbirds flash iridescent green, blue, yellow and red when the light hits them just right, so what’s up? I found a lot of info explaining the phenomenon from highly scientific studies to overly simple explanations, so opted for the middle road. Iridescence comes from a combination of pigment and structure. In hummingbirds, melanin granules (dark pigment) stack up in the barbules of each feather. The granules are called platelets, and each is filled with microscopic air bubbles that become tiny reflectors. Light reflects and refracts as it passes through these stacks. The color you see is determined by the angle of your eye as you view the feathers. So unlike pigment, structural color can change. That is why the beautiful ruby-red throat or emerald-green back of a hummingbird can look almost black when the sun isn’t striking it or you’re not looking at the feathers at the right angle.

You can tell the sun is not hitting the top of this

hummer's head or maybe the angle isn't right

because here it looks dark, but in other photos of

the same bird, it flashes brilliant yellow. The ends

of the wings however, lack structural color as I've

never seen iridescence shown in them. They

are always dark, indicating a lot of melanin.

I love the flash of green and yellow shown here.

If you look on her back and on the top of her head,

there is no iridescence--either from lack of

light or the wrong angle, so it looks dark.

Flashes of iridescence among the shadows. It

doesn't even look like the same bird in the first photo.

Beak Bit
In addition to color, the pigment melanin has another use in feathers...it makes them stronger. A clip from Cornell's “All about Birds” Website describes the strengthening characteristics of melanin best:

"Feathers that contain melanin are stronger and more resistant to wear than feathers without melanin. Feathers without any pigmentation are the weakest of all. Many otherwise all white birds have black feathers on their wings or black wingtips. These flight feathers are the ones most subject to wear and tear. The melanin causing the tips to appear black also provides extra strength."

It makes sense the wings and tail feathers

of hummers would be black and have a

lot of melanin. They really get a work out!

Although I read a lot of articles about structural color, I used the "National Geographic Reference Atlas to the Birds of North America," edited by Mel Baughman as my main reference, along with Cornell's "All About Birds".

Look at the tongue on that hummingbird!

This little hummingbird worked herself into such a tizzy defending her nectar source I couldn't take my eyes off her. Fierce and protective, she eventually settled down on a small branch in the American Hornbeam tree. If you didn't know better, you would think she was sticking her tongue out at the juvenile trying to muscle in on her nectar source. This photo is not high quality, but it's great for teaching. Look at that long, long tongue!

Hummingbird tongues can be as long as or longer than their bills.

Hummingbirds have very unique tongues! To start with, the tip is forked and covered in a fringe that works like a mop to help the hummingbird lap up nectar, but it doesn't stop there...the edges of the hummingbird's tongue curl up to form small, open channels that use capillary action to pull in nectar. At one time, it was thought hummingbirds had straw-like tongues and sucked in nectar just like butterflies or moths do with their proboscis, but now researchers know they flick their tongues in and out up to 13 times a second to lap up nectar.

Update: I just read the article, "How the hummingbird's tongue really works," by Deborah Braconnier, so I thought I'd add it in. According to the research of Associate professor of ecology Margaret A. Rubega and graduate student Alejandro Rico-Guevara from the University of Connecticut, hummingbirds do not use capillary action to take in nectar. Instead, they curl their tongues to trap liquid. It's an unconscious, automatic effort that requires no energy by the bird. Click here for the entire article and a video of the hummingbird's tongue in action.

Because the tongue is so long, it lets the hummingbird

lap up nectar even if it can't reach its bill into the flower.

If you look carefully at this photo, you can see the tongue

curving down into the flower at a 90-degree angle to the bill.

Sometimes hummingbirds sip nectar from the base of

a flower from holes drilled in the blossom by insects. In

this photo you can see the hummingbird looking under

the flower. I don't think she found a hole, though...

Tucked in the dark shadows of the pines about

15 feet from the Lucifer crocosmia, this little female

hummingbird chattered and squeaked and

scolded. Her bill looks so sweet here...

Beak Bit (...literally this time!)

Every time I've watched a hummingbird, I've never seen one open his or her bill up wide. Even while chattering and scolding, the birds always seem to have such tiny little openings, so I wondered how they caught insects. Hummingbirds can not live on nectar alone. They also need protein, and therefore they become predators on the hunt for fruit flies, small spiders, and all sorts of flying insects, but their bills just don't seem suited to nabbing insects in the air like a flycatcher, so I wondered how they did it. All of my books at home talk about the importance of insects in a hummingbird's diet, and one even recommends putting out rotten fruit to attract fruit flies, but they never say how a hummingbird catches the insects, so I did a quick Internet search and found lots of interesting articles. Apparently, a hummingbird's lower mandible is bendy. Here is a clip from "Flexible feeders: the lower bill of the hummingbird makes a nectar-drinking beak into one for catching insects" by Adam Summers in "Natural History," Sept 2004. Click here for a link to the full article.

"To see how hummingbirds catch insects, Yanega and Rubega ran a video camera at 500 frames a second to film individuals of several species in slow motion as they fed on fruit flies. Projected at far slower rates, the movies reveal that a hummingbird catches flies at the base of its bill rather than at the tip. Most surprising, as the bird opens its beak to catch a fly, the lower bill suddenly bends downward at a point near the middle and widens, enlarging the bird's mouth to the detriment of the fly."

As in the previous hummingbird posts, any information I didn't know already, I gleaned from the "National Geographic Reference Atlas to the Birds of North America," edited by Mel Baughman. This is one of my favorite books for little details about bird behavior.

Those amazing hummingbird wings...and shoulders...and flight muscles...

If you've spent any time at all watching hummingbirds, you've no doubt marveled at their amazing maneuverability. Being able to accelerate and stop instantly, hummingbirds are the only birds who can fly up, down, forward, side to side, backward, and even upside down and backward, changing direction in microseconds and stopping on a dime to hover or perch. These tiny birds are fearless, often hovering inches from your face while staring you down! I love it when they do that. I always wonder what they are thinking, assuming they are operating on instinct, assessing the situation, but mostly making sure I'm not going to try to hone in on their nectar sources!

Hummingbirds use a figure-8 motion to fly and hover.

Their wings are set up differently than other birds, being

more like hands. Hummingbirds can not bend their wings

at the elbow and wrist, but they can rotate their wings at

the shoulder 180 degrees, allowing the figure-8 motion.

Click here for detailed information on hummingbird flight.

The average hummingbird's wings beat

about 50 times a second while hovering!

Hummingbirds have huge hearts for their body size.

The large and strong heart muscle is needed to

pump blood and oxygen to flight muscles that

are often 50% larger than other birds.

Beak Bit

A hummingbird's flight muscles (pectoralis majors and supracoracoideus) contain all red muscle fiber and are packed with mitochondria (which I remember from school are the powerhouses of the cell responsible for producing energy from glucose to make ATP). My brother, Bill (the personal trainer), taught me about red and white muscle fibers a long time ago when I started lifting weights with him. Red muscles fibers are used for sustained aerobic activity, while white muscles fibers are used for short bursts of anaerobic activity. It is logical then that hummingbirds would have all red muscle fibers with lots of energy producing mitochondria. Hummingbirds hover for so long to sip nectar, they need muscles that are capable of long-term endurance. The breast muscles of chickens, however, contain mostly white muscle fibers (the light meat). This type of fiber allows the bird to take off explosively to escape predators, but does not allow the bird to fly far. Most birds have a mix of white and red fibers. The hummingbird is the only bird that does not have any white muscle fibers in both sets of flight muscles. Click here for more detailed information on muscle fibers and mitochondria in birds.

This little bird is a formidable beast uniquely adapted

to live on nectar, a high-energy food source needed

to fuel a high metabolic rate and unique

musculature, but more on that later!

In addition to the sources I've sited above in links, I used information from the National Geographic Reference Atlas to the Birds of North America by Mel Baughman. This is one of my favorite books for little details about bird behavior.

Our three little hummingbirds...

...continue to fight over the nectar from the Lucifer Crocosmia. At least it's just these three (maybe a female and two juveniles?). In our yard, all of the adult males have already moved on. Scientists believe male hummingbirds may depart for the wintering grounds first because it leaves more concentrated nectar for the females and juveniles.

Such a pretty little female. You can see the white

tips on her tail feathers indicating she's a female.

No ruby gorget and white tips on the tail feathers--must be

a female--or a juvenile. Females and juveniles look alike.

I love this photo with her crazy-eyed attitude.

"Are you quite through?" she seems to be saying.

I remember as I took this photo how a few feathers on the

top of her head were practically glowing gold. It looked

like someone had dropped gold flakes on her crown.

Beak Bit

In the spring, all Ruby-throated Hummingbirds with white tips on the tail are females, but in summer, you never know. Juvenile male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds look like females. When they return in the spring, they will have their ruby gorgets and will have lost the white-tipped rounded tail feathers, making it easy to identify them.

"A ROUTE of evanescence"

A ROUTE of evanescence

With a revolving wheel;

A resonance of emerald,

A rush of cochineal;

And every blossom on the bush

Adjusts its tumbled head,—

The mail from Tunis, probably,

An easy morning's ride.

Emily Dickinson

from "The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson"

"Evanescence" is such a beautiful word and perfectly describes our little Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. Emily Dickinson's sensitivity to nature forever gave us this connection--a perfect match in sound and mood. Fleeting, they do seem to appear out of nowhere and vanish as a vapor when they wish.

...continued from Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and Lucifer Crocosmia

Mama Ruby-throated Hummingbird Sitting on her Nest

Walking on the trail today, I looked up just in time to see a tiny bit of movement in the leaves. Something was there. Something small. I put the binocs up to my eyes and spun the focusing dial slowly until a tiny lichen-covered nest topped by a lovely female Red-throated Hummingbird came into view. So tiny and sweet, she had decorated her nest with a beautiful display of lichens, locking everything in place with spider web silk. Although not visible, the inside of her nest would be lined with plant down. If you look closely, you can see the down from a dandelion seed stuck in the spider web at the base of the nest.

(Click photo to enlarge to see the detail in the lichens.)

Right now, at home as I write this, a storm is rolling through. Rain is pouring in torrents and thunder and lightning are reminding me it’s spring. I think about the little female sitting tight on her nest protecting her eggs from the wind and rain and am very glad I was lucky enough to spot that tiny movement and catch a glimpse of her world of tiny perfection.

Beak Bit
The female builds her nest after the male finds a suitable location. She collects strands of spider web silk and wraps them around plant material and lichens. The lichens adhere to the sticky cobweb as the female pushes the small flakes into the silk using her bill. She also traps bits of lichens under strands of silk she has woven around and around the nest. Very small, the nest is only one and a half inches across, a hummingbird itself, being only three to three and three quarters inches long. She usually lays two white, bean-sized eggs and incubates them for about 14 days, sitting on them 60-80% of the day. After the eggs hatch, the male often will fly off and find another mate, taking no part in rearing the young.

I miss our little rubies and emeralds...

I've really enjoyed the January and February snows. So many beautiful birds visit my feeders during the snowstorms, and Red looks exceptionally pretty against the white, so I haven't started in with that I-can't-wait-for-the-sun-to-take-over thing yet, but this evening, I made the mistake of looking at some pics of summer...warm, lovely summer filled with summer birds and summer flowers, and I started to get...antsy. Not good. It's way too early to start thinking about open windows, warm breezes, and cherry tomatoes plucked right off the vine for lunch.

...but we can start thinking about our little rubies and emeralds, because they are starting to think about us and their Big Fly north:

Photos Rick took of one of our female 

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

From the Hummingbird Journey North Web site:

Beginning February 5th, weekly spring migration updates will be posted here every Thursday, from February to June. Get ready to track the migration! Hummingbirds will move north to nest and travel across the continent. Find out how to report your sightings and track the migration on real-time maps.

This is a really fun site. If you haven't tried it out yet, give it a look.