Humming Towards The Sweetness

I can’t thank everyone enough for the stars, comments and hearts on my last couple of blips. I’m so pleased that you enjoyed them. You are very special people.

I made a late afternoon trip to the Canyon.  The timing threw some interesting light onto this female Rufous hummingbird.  I don’t expect them to be hanging around the area much longer as they are just migrating through. Rufous, by the way, is the name of that rust color. There are other birds with rufous markings or have the color in their name, like the Rufous-crowned sparrow. I wanted to give you a sense of the size of this hummingbird. For instance, that feeder has a capacity of 8 ounces (one cup). They are 7-9 cm long, weigh 2-5 g  and have a wingspan of 11 cm.

A couple of cool facts about this species:
*They breed as far north as southeastern Alaska – the northernmost breeding range of any hummingbird in the world.

*They make one of the longest migratory journeys of any bird in the world, as measured by body size. At just over 3 inches long, its roughly 3,900-mile movement (one-way) from Alaska to Mexico is equivalent to 78,470,000 body lengths.

One of the amazing things about hummingbirds, and what makes their wings in flight look so much different than other birds, is that they don’t flap in the traditional sense. Their wings move in a figure-eight motion which creates that cool whirling look!