Green Options » hummingbirds

Book Review: Flight of the Hummingbird by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas

Justin Van Kleeck — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:00:32 +0000

Every individual, no matter how small or inconsequential that individual may seem, has the power to make a difference in the lives of others and to make positive changes occur on the largest scales.

This is the message in Flight of the Hummingbird: A Parable for the Environment by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas. The author takes a story from the Quechuan people of South America about Dukdukdiya, a fearless little hummingbird who tries to put out a fire in the Great Forest one drop of water at a time. While the other animals stand at the Forest’s edge, afraid and confused and hopeless, Dukdukiya tirelessly picks up droplets of water in an effort to save her and her companions’ home. Rather than give up like the others, and despite her diminutive physical form, her heart shows its grandness as she does what no one else will. “I am doing what I can,” she says.1

Along with this wonderful, touching folktale, Yahgulanaas provides illustrations in the traditional Haida Manga style. In evocative red and black colors, his depictions of the animals and habitat capture both your eye and the wildness of the animals. Although not true-to-life renderings by any means, Yahgulanaas’s stylized renderings seem to express the “spirit” of the creatures, adding great life and strength to the story itself. This fantastic artwork almost literally comes alive, too, in the animated video on the publisher’s website.

Handmade for Hummingbirds

Autumn Wiggins — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:28:14 +0000

This time of year is when hummingbirds start making an appearance in many of our gardens, but those cheap plastic feeders don’t lend much ambiance. Luckily, there are many methods out there for making them yourself out of re-purposed materials.

Kelly recently showed us some great examples of glass bottles turned useful again, and here is another project to add to the list. You will need: a glass bottle with an opening that would fit a standard cork, Heavy gauge wire and cutters, and a purchased stopper for a hummingbird feeder. You can find these on pottery supply sites such as Aftosa, and occasionally at specialty garden shops. Thoroughly wash out the bottle. Then, wrap the wire around it so that it will hang upside down or at an angle in the location you will be placing it. Fill it with nectar, cork and hang! Here are some simple instructions for mixing nectar from Hummingbirds.net. They stress not to add red dye, as it may be dangerous for the birds to consume:

Say Hello to My Little Friend–The Hummingbird

Justin Van Kleeck — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:00:12 +0000

Have you ever been outside, maybe working in the garden, soaking up rays by the pool, or snoozing in the hammock, when suddenly a flying, sparkly green centurion with pointy black spear charges up, out of nowhere, dangerously close to your face?

This thing, whatever it is, seems simply to pop into existence with no more than a strange humming buzz, challenging your presence for a moment, and then popping back into the ether with a nigh-unperceivable tirade of twittering squeaks. You may be tempted to swat at it, thinking it is some monstrously mutated mosquito.

But then your stupor breaks and you realize the truth: You have just had a close encounter of the hummingbird kind.

These winged warriors are fantastic wonders of nature. Hummingbirds know not of fear and will faceoff with just about anything, curmudgeons that they are. They can perform feats of motion that almost defy the laws of physics, that seem to create G-forces strong enough to shatter the strongest material. And yet there they are, again and again, twirling and twittering and teleporting through the air nearly faster than the eye can see.

(And, if humans could understand them, they are probably cussing each other, us, and every other thing that is not sweet nectar. For Sheri Williamson of the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory has to be right in thinking that “the hummingbird vocabulary is a hundred percent swear words”!1)