The flight of a hummingbird caught my eye as the bird wove through the trees in my backyard. It paused to hover long enough for me to get my binoculars on it. It was a female, and I could see her bill opening wide and closing again.
Hummingbirds don't rely exclusively on nectar. They eat tiny insects and spiders, too. But this bird's movements didn't look as if she was eating. The light shifted slightly and glinted off a spider web. The bird was gathering threads from the sticky web to help hold her nest together.
I never found that nest, but last week, a fellow birder showed me one in the North Carolina mountains.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds like to place their nests astride a slender branch and cover the outside with lichens to help hide it from nest raiders.
This nest was a work of art. The mother patiently brooded two babies, their tiny bills occasionally poking above the edge of the nest. Ruby-throats usually lay two eggs, and these hatchlings will soon be perching on the nest rim, testing their wings and developing the muscles that will enable more than 50 wing beats per second.
It's those rapid wing beats that produce the humming sound that gives these birds their name. But they do have voices. A few weeks ago, I was sitting on the porch of a friend's house overlooking a garden filled with ferns, Solomon's seal and bee balm. All are native plants, and bee balm is one of several that attract hummingbirds.
Several dozen of its bright red flowers are clustered in heads. The flowers are tubular, and a hummer will visit several in succession, probing its long bill and tongue deep into the tube to extract the tiniest bit of nectar.
The bird I was watching was doing just that when another hummer appeared. The first bird stopped feeding and dashed at the intruder, uttering a rapid-fire series of twittering notes as they zigzagged through the flowers.
Some birds sing characteristic songs that simultaneously attract mates and warn away competitors. Some, most notably the peacock, have spectacular plumages that they display in elaborate ways for the same purposes. And others employ elaborate flight displays to accomplish these ends — and hummingbirds are among them.
While I watched brown thrashers, towhees and goldfinches visit the feeders in the garden, the male hummingbird attracted my attention as he moved about the bee balm. He flew 12 feet above the flowers, hovered for a moment, then dived to the flower and up again, inscribing a U-shape in the air.
He repeated this pattern several times. His mate must have been nearby. This display was certainly performed for her benefit. Males also display that bright red throat patch to their mates, seeming to say as so many species do, see how handsome I am.
You, too, can attract hummingbirds to your garden. There are lots of plants that attract them, and many are readily available from garden centers and seed companies. They are easy to grow and add welcome splashes of color to your garden. Bee balm, Oswego tea, bergamot and several forms of salvia are my favorites. Trumpet creeper and coral honeysuckle are also native plants that are excellent for attracting hummingbirds, but they are harder to find.
Visit forsythaudubon.org for a wide variety of activities and outings aimed at enjoying birds.
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